So, just so everyone is clear, this is going to be another long, semi-philosophical post, OK.Today I volunteered at my school for what they call "Day at Law School". This is where kids, elementary through high school, come to the school, take tours, see a mock trial and attend a class, they also get free lunch and breakfast. I helped out by talking to kids about higher education while they were eating lunch, then I took a group on a tour. I got a group of elementary school kids, and they just loved me. Some of them tried to hold my hand (these were pretty little kids, they are in an after-school (and apparently Saturday) program called The Center, and they come to just about anything Hastings does). One kid even asked if he could be my partner for the day, and they fought over who got to ride in the elevator with me, it is nice to be liked. Turns out they came to the Halloween party Hastings put on and they remembered me. I was dressed like Hulk Hogan and I read stories to all the kids, but they totally remembered me, so that was cool. Back to the reason for this post.
I was walking up the stairs (355) to my house, and I stopped to enjoy the view, which is posted above (by the way that is my old cell phone that took that picture, who knew). While I was sitting there, thinking how great my life was, no joke a cat came up to me and started rubbing around my legs, just some random cat, there aren't any real houses right there and there were no people around. While this was happening I facetiously thought to myself "wow, kids and animals love me, I must have some sort of inner peace they can sense." That is the subject of my post.
While I was pretty much just messing around about the kids and animals thing, I really feel like I have a lot of peace in my life right now. I think that peace is one amazing thing, that it is really the ideal state of being. I think that you can still be happy, sad, busy, stressed, and still have a measure of peace. How wonderful it is to be able to say, "I have no quarrel with God or man."
Now some people might not think that this is that big of a deal, but I think it is. If we really think about it, man (and woman) has a dual nature. C.S. Lewis has one of the best arguments for the existence of God that I have read, and it revolves around the idea that there is good and evil in the world, it is universal. For the purposes of this blog, I just wanted to point out that there a universal idea of bad and good, anyone who has ever felt bad about anything they ever did has to admit that. Each of us has things that we want to do and don't succeed, or things that we know we shouldn't do and still do them. There is a real conflict in the world, good, bad, love hate, life, death, an opposite for each one, and we are torn between these opposites constantly. Anyone that has read the Castle in the Attic can appreciate the two sides on the coin of Janis, one to heal and one to hurt.
Lately (really I mean in the last couple of months) I have been feeling pretty good, even with all of the stress of law school and with how busy I have been. I think looking out to the ocean I realized how good it is to not really be worried about things, I really felt at peace. I don't always feel that way, but I think that we can if we live according to some pretty simple ideals. Try to do everything the best you know how, and if you are not sure, do what you think is best after you have thought it through. If we decide carefully before we act, it will not tear us up later, because we really tried to do what we thought was right. We probably won't always be right, but if we always try to be, there is no better that we can do. I hope you guys understood what I was saying, and if there is anything bothering you in your life, fix it. Whatever it takes, the peace you feel when there is nothing on your conscious is worth it.
