something that we can all aspire to

God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination.

-Elbert Hubbard

Out of a long list of quotes from the American author, these two stuck enough that I copy and pasted them here.

While I do not consider myself christian in religion or practice, I am a born and bred American which means that I have many christian ideals and morals deeply ingrained into my world view. This is an inescapable fact of anyone who was raised in the ol' U S of A. It could be argued that you were raised under a symbol other than the cross, but I would argue that social influences cannot be dodged. And we have an undeniably christian society.

I do not think of God as a wizened bearded father figure, and I am a evolutionist through and through. But I do believe that there is something bigger than humans happening in the universe, we are not the end all be all, and our primitive brains will probably never be able to understand what it actually is.

While I do not adhere to any religion I am full of faith and spirit. There is no doubt in my mind that we are in this life all alone, and the only way that we can experience anything is through our own senses. But none the less we connect to the others around us, and somehow share the same experiences. I would say that I lean towards Buddhism the most, in that I feel there is one central consciousness that we are all part of and are in touch with, but how we project and tint the blank white light of that consciousness on to our own personal screen is how we are all different people.

So through our experiences and upbringings we are undoubtedly unique and all have a range of tints and screens in which we project onto the screens of our perceptions. But there remains a common sense of what it means to be human, regardless of how you filter out life, and there remains experiences so common that we can call them the "human condition". A set of experiences that are so common among all cultures, religions and styles that it is how we have come to define what it is to be human.

I believe that this light is also projected through animals, things and places, which is why we can feel some kind of emotional attachment or commonality with non-human entities. I have come to this conclusion because I can see love in a dogs eyes, I know of tools that will only work for people in the right mind set, and I have felt the joy, power, serenity, change of the mountain, wood, river, and sky. Somehow, someway, these inanimate or inhuman elements have entered my life and have caused change in me.

But these are just my theories, and they are always open to revision. I dont think that you can come up with a wrong theory about such existential subjects, simply because there is no way to prove what is right. And even if a "correct" path was laid before us, our brains would not be able to reconcile the big picture, and we would fall back to our simplified truths. And in the simplicity lies the beauty.

Hubbard was on to something we he said that we are better judged by the things we have endured, than by the achievements we have realized. As in the common example of a item received versus a item earned, the one you had to work for holds much more value. But while I do feel that the trials that have been faced hold more weight that the accomplishments, I do not think that the achievements should be entirely dismissed. Take for example two people that have the same number and shape of "scars". One of the two people achieved everything that they set out to do, while the other made achieved nothing. They have both been through tha same trails, so we know from a long list of defeats that it must have been tough. So it could be said that they both are very persistent, the first never giving up until successful and the other never giving up regardless of outcome. But what about the moral of either of the characters? The successful chap would believe that anything is within reach, but it will take a lot of work. The perpetual loser knows form experience that his efforts are probably in vain, but he never the less tries, and even more then that, puts in just as much effort as the successful but never tasted the victory. You could say that both are of strong character and optimism, but which one would you feel would be the harder life to live? By the external scars they have had the same life, but what about the scars that cannot be seen? But I guess that a god would be able to see any and all scars, and by our condition that they have the same scars, they would have lived the same life without consideration of the attainment of goals. But can we really say that these two individuals have lived the same life?

So what about Elbert's other great quote. (By the way Elbert Hubbard should not be confused with the wild imagination that created Scientology, that went by a similar name. Also worthy of mention is the Elbert is such a fantastic name, one that graces the highest peak on the Colorado Plateau, and is very close close to my own name sake and history as a Pennsylvanian-Dutch farmer.) OK, back to the point, ah yes. Beauty is attained my slow removal of what is not needed. Well, I can certainly go along with this, but first how do we get all of this stuff built up so that we may sculpt beauty? Surely, we are not born with it? Maybe you weren't, and don't call me Shirley. hahahaha, classic. Thank Mr. Nielsen for that one. I am full of tangents right now. My high school history teacher took great pride in being able to relate any two objects, ideas or anything together in only 8 steps. At first I was shocked and amazed, but after listening to a few of his connections I saw that it was not really too hard to do. You only have to be a little creative, and be willing to make some far-fetched connections. of course high school students were never able to question the vague connections, because they would have been immediately shot down by a well spoken and popular personality in the school. Every dog has his day, and although I would not call this teacher a dog, but he certainly had no shame in cutting into kids a third his age. But I digress once again to how do we get all of this material to chisel away when we couldn't have been born with it. Christians disagree and call in original sin, but think of any child. Their minds are open to everything the world has to offer and quickly latch on to anything that is put in front of them. I believe that this process continues for the rest of our life, but at some point in our twenties we realize that we already have too many things going on. Some are contradicting beliefs, others we have just moved past but we then start to cut back on the up take of new thoughts and start to focus on what we have that is really important. We can then get rid of ones that are really just not that practical in our own lives. So for the rest of our lives we add a bit here and chisel a bit there until we can reach some kind of equilibrium where we have just what we need and nothing more. Since we live in an every changing world it is not easy to stay on one shape for a very long time, and those that do are very lucky indeed.

But for now I am done chiseling away at this keyboard.