We’re going to talk about a few things that people don’t like to talk about. Many may believe they have discussions about such things but every word tends to dodge ever hitting anything of actual substance. We’re going to talk about them because they deserve attention, but only in the right amount.

The first thing we’re going to talk about is death. I will begin this with a disclaimer. If you are a person of faith and have no doubts in your mind regarding events that occur after the completion of your specific organic lifecycle, feel free to stop reading now.

Still there? Good. That means you’re human but we’ll get to that later.

I am a man without faith and my views of mortality are influenced by that, with no intention to offend.

All living things die and as sentient beings we have the ability to produce thoughts about this idea of death. Most of us fear death, myself included. We fear it because we can’t comprehend what it really means and there is nothing scarier to humans than what we don’t know. Yet, if death stands defined as what is outside of this life, we all have spent more time being dead than anything else. I know that in almost 15 billion years that the universe has been around, I’ve been alive for 21 of them. The rest of that time I was not living, which would make me dead, I suppose.

I read an article the other day that said suicides have exceeded the number of deaths of those caused by car accidents in America. I read another article that said President Obama leads Mitt Romney 48-41 percent among NASCAR fans. Let’s get to the next part which as you may have guessed, will be life.

Life is much more restricted in its definition than death. Life, or better yet, conscious life, is exclusively the reality that you create for yourself in said consciousness, which is residing in the massive heap of cells that you know as yourself. It is that heap of cells that holds this paper but it’s this consciousness that can make it mean anything. Think about that for a bit.

In addition to that, we are all born into circumstances that most of us didn’t ask for, be it good or bad. If you have the privilege of being an American born after the end of the Second World War, you were born with no choice but to believe that you live in the greatest country in the world. I know that I’ve been told that nearly constantly as far as I can remember. That’s absurd, of course. That can only ever be an opinion.

Despite all of our freedom, we are all taught from the moment that we are born that you will have your place in society by labor. Your success in labor will determine how much money you have. This, of course, has nothing to do with how important what you do is.

Let me give you an example. Warren Buffet has a net worth of $46 billion or so. He got this from investment banking, which, when you truly break it down, means that he tossed money at things, played with the values in what should be seen as a very bogus value system and without doing any actual work made billions. Not saying he’s a bad guy, but I can guess that he rarely breaks a sweat to make all that cash.

Meanwhile in this grand state of New York, dairy farmers are falling into debt with many of them having to take out risky loans or sell their herds to pay the bills. You see, the price of feed has gone up much more than the price of milk has. You need to feed the cows or they’ll make no milk, which would mean we get no milk. If you didn’t know, New York is third in dairy production in the country, behind Wisconsin and California.

But hey, what’s the use of crying over spilt milk, right?

Wrong. There are patterns in these happenings of today and the yesterdays that led us here. It’s terribly simple and yet is insanely difficult to explain. Suicides are up, rising right beside anti-depressants and anti-anxiety prescriptions and we see little to no issue. You say that everyone is depressed and take it as ‘just how it is.’ There’s no point, we can’t change it. Right?

Wrong. In fact, we are the only ones who can do anything about any of this. That’s why nothing gets done. Humankind seems to have become so complacent that we can do nothing but accept the tide of fecal matter hurdling towards us known as life.

Call me crazy, but I just can’t stand the idea that I have to waste my time on tasks that don’t matter. I suppose this is an idea that could only really start to be had at this point in history, but man is capable of fantastic doings simply due to the collective knowledge that we have gathered at this point.

We have the ability and the means to solve world hunger, easily in fact. Warren Buffet could do most of it himself, I imagine. We could bring peace to this world and it would probably save the environment too. If you really think cooking liquefied dinosaurs is still the most advanced way to produce energy, you should just leave. We can solve every issue that we have but we don’t because… because… why don’t we do this again?

I really can’t seem to come up with any sort of answer for that. Is it because I have to get a job? Is it because I have debts to pay for knowledge I have allegedly received? Is it because I don’t have a girlfriend? What is this madness?

Sorry about that. I’ll wrap this up with a few last run-on sentences.

I believe that the most important thing to remember is that saying “you’re dying” at any point in time is terribly redundant because that is the only thing that you are ever consistently doing from the moment that you become what can be regarded as a living thing. We are all dying, just like the leaves this time of year. It’s the only thing all of us have in common. You have no choice in that. You do have a choice about living, though.

To contact The Ionian’s Brian Sears, e-mail him at [email protected]