The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul

From the base of the Stoa, upward gazing at fireworks, I would like to think about internal contemplation.

At the risk of sounding like a drugged up hippy, I would like to remind everyone that the universe does talk to you if you are willing to listen. God is out there, no matter what your religion/science calls it. We are crafted from the dust of long destroyed stars, blown into the void and reshaped into new stars, planets, and life. Something of the past exists in all of us, to create the future.

Conscience, consciousness, right, wrong, good, evil, honor, morality, evolution and mortality. It is all there, threaded into this complex machine that is the human body. We know when we are doing something bad and we know when we are doing something good. It is more than upbringing, it is our "tuning fork" that is built into us all. When we act against our nature, we feel a negative emotion. If we have a good character (our default mode, I believe), we learn from those emotions and seek to avoid the feeling. If we have been overwhelmed with negativity then it will destroy us, body and soul. Like attracts like.

The header for this entry comes from a Douglass Adams book of the same name. The man was brilliant and taken from us far too soon. I would have loved reading more of his work. In my opinion, The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul is a perfect description for what we do at lat at night, when we are all alone with nothing but our thoughts to entertain us. It is deep introspection and contemplation. When we sleep we reboot our systems, restock supplies and remove waste products. Our brains collate all the data that was compiled during our last waking-cycle. Likewise, I believe that we need to have a psychic reboot as well, and no, I'm not talking about ESP or any other mental "powers". No, just a simple "refounding" of principles.

In the movies, this is always shown with a bottle of scotch. Wrong. You must keep alcohol out of this equation. You must remain perfectly clear while having this internal dialogue with yourself. Party afterwards, but not at this time. Deep down we all know what is right. I have stated before that this is inborn to all people. The "string" within us vibrates sympathetically to the universe/god. Deciding what to do with one's life is another of the Tea Times of the Soul.

Teenagers have the world at their feet, but sometimes, that world is scary, intimidating, and full of choices. Early immigrants from the old Soviet Bloc in Europe could be found, stuck in the pharmacy section looking at, and having to choose from, 50 different types of toothpaste. Back home, they were lucky to find one tube of toothpaste, let alone different brands or types. Simple choice there. Teenagers face this problem with life, and it only grows more stressful the closer they get to graduation. As adults, we forget sometimes that they do not have the same benefit of wisdom and hindsight that we have developed over the decades.

No one sets out to flip burgers at the local fast food restaurant, nor do they seek out the exciting life of door to door vacuum salesman. People do flip burgers and people do sell vacuums door to door. Many avoid these Tea Times of the Soul so that they do not have to look at what their lives have become, and are poorer for it. Acknowledging that you do not like this course in your life allows you to "own" the bad feelings and change your course. If you do not like flipping burgers then you will have to go to college, university, and maybe even get a Master's degree. Are those things hard to do? Yep. Are those things expensive? Hell yes. We do them so that when we have this communion with our "greater self" (that is for another time...) we can feel good about ourselves, who we are, and what we are doing with our lives.

I would rather feel the stress of a high power job then deal with the soul killing emotions that come from knowing I have squandered my abilities. To know that you are smarter than the idiot telling you how to do your menial job yet have no recourse is an awful thing to have to bear day after day.

Teenagers are dumb. They are socially immature and naive. They do not know how and and not been forced to have these quiet discussions with ourselves. They are so sure that they know everything that it is sometime before they are old enough to realize that they really know exactly nothing.

However, I also have to give credit to the power of ignorance. Think back to a particular poor choice you made, and knowing what you know now, if you could change the past, would you? I do not regret much in my life, so I'd be answering "no" much of the time. However, we are who we are today because of what we were yesterday. Think on it. If people really "knew" how hard it is to make through military training, not many would join. If we really "knew" the outcome of a poor marriage choice, would we still do it? What about any children born from that ill-thought out marriage? Who knows what great things they will do in life? From poor choices, great things can be born. The biggest disasters lead to the greatest wisdom. If we seek to avoid the hard things in life, then we will never experience the joy that comes with it.

When you are young you have ambition and drive in spades. That is what allows them to colonize a continent or fly an airplane for the first time. The first person to eat a chicken egg was either very hungry or too dumb not to know that you can't eat that (since it fell from a chicken's butt). It is the young and the ignorant that fly and test experimental aircraft. It is the young and the ignorant that think that you can start up a computer company in your garage or use the Internet to sell goods and services. Thousands will fail at those enterprises yet those that succeed did so because TRIED. As one grows older they get more conservative. Sometimes you just have to say, "what the hell" and run into something screaming, tongue flapping on a cheek, spittle flying and your hair on fire. You never know, it may just work.

Don't forget that one is never really alone. You always have yourself. You will always know what is best for you and only YOU can make the tough choices that change your life. You, you, you. The only blame that is not yours is when something terrible is done to you when you have done everything right. Then, you just write the guilt off and keep on swimming. Think on that some more as well and get back to me.

Live without regrets.
Live with informed consent from yourself.
Live well.

--Zavost