“Dear World…”

Dear World,

I know you want good things.  We all do.  It’s a truth that will never change.  There’s this part of us that is always hungering, aching for something we don’t have; something we are convinced that we want, even if we don’t know what THAT is.

The problem is, dear World, you’re looking in all the wrong places.

You’ve changed, old friend.  That, or I’m finally starting to view you as you really are.  Either way, you’ve changed to me.  People have changed.  And people make up who you are, World.

We are always looking for the newest thrill…because the old thrills don’t satisfy us anymore.  We have an insatiable hunger, and the bar, the standards, continue to grow higher and higher…but somehow lower at the same time.  The most common way I see this is through what “impresses” us in stories anymore.

For once we have seen something in one degree, and appreciated it, we are always on the look out for that same thing on a higher degree.  We are always looking for something, some aspect of a story, that can top another.

When we watch a movie with an evil villain, we are impressed by the villain’s cunning, by his master plan, by the very fact that he is so evil and hits all the right spots in his evilness.  When we were younger, the “bad guy” that might have impressed us in these ways might have been an evil step-mother from a Disney Princess movie.  But then Disney Princess antagonists weren’t enough.  

Loki was clever, conceited, and attractive.  We were impressed by his extent of evil.  But…suddenly it just wasn’t enough.

Then there was Moriarty from Sherlock.  He was crazy.  He was insane.  He was dark for no other reason than because he wanted to be.  But soon Moriarty wasn’t enough.

So then there was the Joker from the Dark Night…

…and the pattern continues.  And it can go for any theme or genre.

Take romance.  Each new movie or book has to be even more romantic than the last.  More touching.  It needs to make us cry HARDER than the last one, and make us feel more emotional than the last one…because, otherwise, it just won’t be as good.  We always want things to a degree higher than we already have experienced.

World, you are searching for Infinity.  You want Eternity.  You are obsessed with the highest.

I’m not surprised that you’re obsessed with sex.  You crave it in every way, shape, and form…and that’s what makes you crude, dear World.  You want sex, but you want it just for pleasure.  You want it to numb your pain.  You want it because it IS impressive.  Because it makes you feel things that no other experience will give you.  It makes you feel wanted.  But you are obsessed with the right things in all the wrong ways.  Because you don’t understand that what you want, that sex, is meant for something higher than fleeting pleasures, momentary happiness.  You are a World of counterfeits, of lies.

You will never be happy, dear World., because you want the highest goods, but you will pay nothing to buy it.  You want what is eternal and lasting, greater than the first good, more captivating than the last feeling…but you’ll never get it.  Because you are unwilling to work for it.  You aren’t willing to hurt for what you desire. 

We are obsessed with what costs so much…but we are also obsessed with what is easy.  With what is convenient.  That’s why you settle for counterfeits.  That’s why you never get what you want.  That’s why you turn to higher and higher forms of “pleasure”…and turn away unsatisfied, and more monstrous than you were before.

I love you, World.  And so I tell you the secret.

What you search for is love.

And you think this to be an obvious statement.  You think “I know that’s what I want!”

But you don’t know what love is.

Love is sacrifice.  Love hurts.  And that is why you never have it.  

Love is not convenient.  It is not equal to sex, or the distorted types of things that you call sex…which, in turn, you call love.  And love hurts….SO much.  

But, what you have yet to understand, is that it’s worth it.

And so I give you this piece of advice…dare I say, this warning, old friend: LEARN!  Learn to love love.  Learn to love sacrifice.  Learn to give up your counterfeits.  Your desire for the highest of the highest is not bad.  It is simply misplaced.  What you want is something good…you just don’t know what that “good” is yet.

Learn, World.

For if you don’t, then only death and destruction awaits you.

We have already seen signs of this decay.  It is already happening before us.

Communism.

Nazism.

9/11.

ISIS.

Charolettesville.

North Korea.

Racism.

Las Vegas.

Learn to love, World.  The fight has always been yours.

-Wisdom