“Normally people have three walks of life, and they seem to chose this walk of life right around the mid-point between their being a teenager and an graduated adult. I specify ‘graduated adult’ from ‘adult’ because I cannot honestly say that those some consider to be adults are any better than a three year old child. Yet the most important decision in life can readily be seen becoming cemented around age 15-17.
The three paths in life are as follows, and are very basic to the point of many people overlooking their importance altogether: extreme (or exotic), normal, or wasteful. The first is what I’d rather speak on, as it is the life of my own choice, but then again I find it might be more helpful to talk on the other two in context of the first, even though I might be less knowledgeable on the latter two.
A normal life by the account of Americans is one where you spend thirteen years in a school or number of schools to which will be added a further 5 years (on average), of advanced schooling. On the whole, the majority of those coming out of this 18 year transformation would’ve been no more educated than had they quit school at grade 8. After said advanced schooling, a trade is taken up to which a person will limit themselves to until they are to the age where usefulness is seemingly a thing of the past. There they will sit and drink tea, much as I’m doing now, until they are carted off to a nursing care until they have expelled their years of unusefulness. Throughout this period you might easily categorize the vast majority of these people to be ‘wishful thinkers,’ thinking upon times gone by and upon things they might have done.
The wasteful life is one which I may prove to have the least knowledge of, for even in my own wasteful times, I can very well say that myself as a person was not bent upon such an end. But it is indeed quite possible that those who are indeed wasteful are actually people who somehow believe themselves to have an exotic life without having to work for one nor benefit from one. These are the types who look for all sorts of alternatives to life, such as drugs and alcohol to name a few. But then there are also extremes that actually believe their own wastefulness and seek to end their life, and supposed suffering. Now this is not to say there are those who do not have legitamite problems, that can indeed be named suffering. But this is not to say that these kinds of people cannot adopt a different nature and succeed despite their background. In short, a wasteful life is either one who ignores their wastefulness and doesn’t seek to change their life, or they embrace it whole-heartedly to the point of self-detriment.
An exotic life then is simply the changing of ones attitude, and not something that depends upon circumstances.
For instance…consider those who have come before myself. One such young man being a cripple. He wished to become a potter. His upbringing, a very poor one and not at all meriting such a person as he came out to be. But knowing himself that he had a God-given talent for pottery much as someone else in our own age has a talent for singing, he then undertook any study he could to come up with his own desired end. He did not expect his parents to believe he would become a world-famous potter, he simply enjoyed the art and sought to do his best in that which he loved himself.
Life then might be likened to a cup of tea. Each kind of man likes the cup of tea his own way. I like mine with a bit of soul in it, so I find tea from those who enjoy making it the most and put a good effort into it. I might pay a bit more for it, but I enjoy my cup of tea much more because I like tea more than an average man. Same with life, I might be one to expect more out of it, because as I said, my attitude is not to accept normality and/or a wasteful life. In this way I believe more men might very well be able to live as I do, only they choose not to at a very young age and then grow up not believing it possible.
I would ask them ‘why not?’ But I doubt they could prove their innocence any more than I can prove that I enjoy my cup of tea any more than the man beside me.”
-excerpts from “A dissertation of the traveling teacup”
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