Written in Pencil

We're all written in pencil, we just never know when we'll be erased. My grandpa said that during lunch today, and that got me thinking about how quickly our lives come and go, as well as what I was doing with the short time I have been given to make an impact.
As the header of the blog says, this is a documentation of my own personal search for meaning in my life. I by no means intend for it to be a guide or road map from which others should take counsel from and live their life by. Truly, nothing is more important in life than finding one's own purpose and living that to its fullest. My hope is, however, that my own personal journey will be one enlightening enough to spark others and give them impetus in their own search in our anthropocentric society for more than just the self, but to truly understand what it means to transcend the corporeal world and, as Plato would say, leave the cave behind.
My life is transitory, every moment in the past is made new in what I experience in the future. There is no specific plan set out before me for things I must do or must accomplish, just things I could do or could accomplish. I do not believe in some pre-mortal destiny, just eternal possibility and purpose. Each moment we are face with a choice we are writing the history of our lives and deciding who we are becoming. It's written in pencil because as we grow, we understand the path and its purposes differently. We see the chain of events that brought us to where we are.
The question, then, becomes not what we have done or who we were, but what we are going to do to make the best of the direction we are heading, and how we can use what we have to change where we're heading.
Maybe you have been on a path that has brought you much happiness and pleasure, and you feel nothing is missing from your life. Or maybe you have made many mistakes and you feel like there's no coming back. No matter the person you were, there is more you can be. There is more you must be.
The world would tell us that our purpose is to simply find happiness in any way possible, that we shouldn't offend anyone and make sure everyone is perfectly comfortable in their sheltered lives. Well, I don't prescribe to that worldview. I believe that the issues we have today are because we are too scared to offend, because the world looks down on those who stand up and stand out. We all want to be unique enough to be "me," but similar enough that we are part of "us." Don't we understand that lives of double meaning have no meaning at all? If we are too busy trying to be what everyone else expects of us, then we will never be the people we have the potential to be.
The more you allow others' opinions to dictate your existence, the less and less you truly exist. But every moment, every decision, leads to a cascade of events that start to shape and craft us into who we are becoming. And we are all becoming less and less people, but more like sheep- being lulled into security and passiveness, not willing to stand up and speak up for our morals.
We have lost sight of what makes us truly unique in the world- our voices. There is no group without individuals, and when we lose sight of who we are individually, then we let go of the building blocks of society.
There is a saying that none of us is as smart as all of us. In some cases that may be true, but in most, I fear, the true saying is none of us is as dumb as all of us. When we lose sight of who we are, we develop "us" vs "them" as our mentality. We lose love for our neighbors. We forget that we are all children of God on a planet striving to survive and experience the beauties and wonders life has to offer.
Man has the potential to perform miracles; how often do we lose sight of that in the pursuit of simple pleasures? How often do we forget about who we are, whose we are, and what we were sent here to do?
Just because life is written in pencil doesn't mean we don't have to worry about what we're doing or where we're headed. Sure, past can be erased and overcome, but the pencil smudges will still be there. The imprint of the formerly written words will remain. We are not us without our past. But we are not us without a future.
We don't know when our time will come, when the words will no longer be written. But we can decide what kind of story we leave behind.
Life is about waking up to the reality of the world and doing what we can in the service of others, building others up, overcoming our own weaknesses, being merciful towards others, and helping them grow.
There are universal truths which cannot be ignored. Meaning and morality are not relative. There are things expected of us.
Each of us will fulfill those expectations in different ways, and in that is found our personal meaning and adventure. But the expectations are the same. We are all to do good and be good, and help others to do so. There is no time to worry about whether or not we are offending people. Because there is no reason to apologize for the truth.
It's time for the world to wake up and realize that there's more to existence than just gratifying the self. We must band together and fight against all that is wrong in the world, so that we may all, as brothers and sisters, overcome in the end.
And then what a story will be left for those that come after. Written in pencil, but kept in their hearts.