The eternal equations.
When I was a young child, I had a crazy idea to write a book of wisdom. My first book, that I started at 8 years old, was a book on how to make a girl like you. At the time, my advice was just be who she wanted you to be, and she’d fall in love with you. That is the worst advice I can imagine, but to 8 year old me, it seemed like a great idea. :)
As a teenager, I wanted to write a book that would tell my children how to act in any situation, and how to always make the right choice. I would try to arrange situations into categories with similar concepts, and try to find the truths behind the choices that could be made. That book died in the planning, but the dream has been with me forever.
Needless to say I was kind of a strange child.
Now, as a 47 year old man who has won and lost, loved and been heartbroken, succeeded and failed, fallen and risen, laughed and cried, and who is still standing, I realize the greatest wisdom I can send into the world today is this.
That in the eternal chaos, confusion and madness that is our journey in this realm, I have found that life will never make sense, but there are equations that allow me to tease some fragments of reason in all the madness.
These are what I loosely call, “The Eternal Equations”. A few of them look something like this:
The Equation of Time: You must balance an unknown amount of time between what is important now, what will be important 10 years from now, and what will be important forever.
The Equation of Love: You must balance love of others with love of principles and values, and find a way to love yourself in spite of your strengths and because of your flaws.
The Equation of Peace: You will only find peace when you stop searching for it, and devote yourself to a cause that may never bring you peace, until you stumble over it one day in the service of others.
The Equation of Compassion: You must find a way to extend this to all, but understand that it will destroy you unless you find a way to control it.
The Equation of Connection: You must balance the need to be alone with your own soul so you can learn who you are and the need to connect with others so you might find yourself reflected in them.
The Equation of Tears: You must learn that tears are a part of life, and they can signal both disaster and the divine. In accepting both, you will find the guideposts to your purpose.
The Equation of Humanity: You must learn that you are both unique, and a part of something greater than you can imagine. Your uniqueness is your gift to the whole, and you are born to use that gift wisely.
In sharing these, I hope to serve you better.
-- Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings