You Exist - Earnest Expedition™

About ten years ago I was on a cruise with my wife, and we were eating breakfast in a main dining room in the stern of the ship. We noticed an interesting menu item that was some type of “steak.” However, we did not recognize the name/term preceding the word “steak.” The maître d was nearby, dressed in a very fancy, almost military-looking uniform. We pointed to the menu and asked him to please further describe the menu item. With a thick accent, he slowly and methodically (and seriously) answered: “A slice of meat.” We held back laughter because we knew he was sincerely trying to help us understand the menu item, but we already knew what the word “steak” meant. It was the word preceding the word “steak” that had us curious. He walked away having accomplished his task of helping us.

I had been on a few cruises before this one, but this was my wife’s first cruise. She is a very intelligent woman (both intellectually and emotionally), but the overall experience on a cruise ship was a new one for her. For fun, I told my wife that the man who had “helped” us in the very fancy uniform at our table was “the captain” (of the ship). She was reasonably skeptical, wondering why the captain of a massive ship with thousands of people aboard would be in the rear dining room in the ship helping guests with menus. But I kept a straight face and there was some ambiguity considering the very official-looking uniform of the maître d (and the fact that she was unfamiliar with cruise ship things). I couldn’t hold the straight face for long, so, moments later, I clarified and explained that the finely dressed man that helped us was none other than “Captain Obvious.”

At the risk of becoming Captain Obvious for you as you read this, I am starting this blog expedition with the fundamental concept that, if you are reading this page right now, you exist. Light is reflecting off paper or otherwise emitting from your electronic device into your eyes. Your brain is assimilating the information, taking various shapes we call “letters” that are organized in specific patterns to convey information from the page to your brain. Your brain, having been trained over time to recognize the symbolic patterns of the letters, informs you of what is being communicated to you. In short, you have some type of consciousness. Your consciousness (something some would call your “spirit”) dwells in your physical homo sapien body like a person aboard a cruise ship. Although this might all seem obvious to you, in my opinion, it is important to start somewhere with a few presuppositions, and to define the presuppositions we each operate under. One conclusion (or some might argue a presupposition) is acknowledging we exist. Because when we acknowledge such existence, we necessarily take on some responsibility as to where our “cruise ship” is and where it is headed. As long as we have consciousness and the ability to act with or through that consciousness, I respectfully assert that we have such responsibility.

Our figurative cruise ships have limited life expectancies. We (should) know that at a certain point in time, our ship will fail, and our consciousness will depart from the ship. What happens after is quite mysterious, but that mystery will be discussed later. For now, we all (or most of us) can agree that we each have limited time on Earth. No one knows exactly how much time he or she has because the life expectancy for one “ship” differs from others. We just know that our time is limited. As with any seafaring vessel with purpose, it is vitally important to establish where we are as individuals and where we are headed. Unfortunately, many people do not want to be reminded (or otherwise even initially informed) of where their ship is or where it is headed. However, not knowing where you are in life makes it very difficult to set a course for where you want (or need) to go, assuming you want to go anywhere.

“I think, therefore I am,” are famous words from the seventeenth century philosopher René Descartes in his Discourse on Method (1637). Descartes understood that the first step to attaining knowledge is acknowledging that you exist and that you have consciousness. By acknowledging you exist and have consciousness you find yourself in a place where you can ask the critical first question of, “Where am I?” It is not necessary to progress to this step to live your life on Earth, but it’s a logical first step for most people. Think of the many movies and television programs in which a character was in a deep sleep or coma and woke up to ask this first question: “Where am I?” (Or, perhaps a variation like, “How did I get here?”). That experience (in a figurative sense) is precisely where many men in their late 30s, 40s, and beyond find themselves when they take the time to soberly reflect on where they are in life. In such moments, we briefly wake from our standard cycle of work, food, entertainment, sleep (on a repeating Groundhog Day-esque loop) with maybe a vacation or two sprinkled in. Before we realize it, we find ourselves far from where we started (and not where we expected to be).

Here is some good news: If you are a human reading this and comprehending this, you do exist and you are alive. Your tomorrow does not have to look like your yesterdays. Significant personal change will require thinking in a new way, which, if authentic, will result in operating in a different way. But the first step is waking up to your existence and your responsibility for what you continue to do with your remaining days and minutes as they tick by.

I invite you to join a journey of sorts to uncover who you are, what the possibilities are for your future (regardless of what you have left in the gas tank), and, perhaps most important of all, why you are here on Earth. An important part of the equation is also the “how”—how you get to where you need to be in life. You might be surprised about how little your efforts have to do with the “how” component. The key is tapping into and being transformed by a power well beyond yourself. I’m not talking about just a random “belief” system in a generic higher power. I am talking about the Ancient of Days. I hope you will follow along with us on this journey and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. There is no better time to start than right now.