Let me start off saying that I'm making this blog because I occasionally get into this deep philosophical like state when I'm left by myself for long periods of time. Basically I started listening to a couple of songs by flyleaf, specifically Swept Away, and this got me into thinking more along the lines of religion, rights and wrong, etc.
Now I'm not stupid enough to come on here talking about religion, because obviously that's a touchy subject for, pretty much everyone. I guess I'll start this off by...giving my...view on what darkness and light are, good a place to start as any.
Now I've never really gone into WHAT darkness actually is, but I have thought intensely on its characteristics. A characteristic of darkness, is comfort. Darkness, envelops you, hides all your actions, so you can live a putrid and disgusting life in the darkness. Darkness gives you, what you want. You want to have a life where you can do anything, without consequence. You want a life where you can't be judged for your must horrid actions. Darkness provides you this comfort. When you live this kind of life, you’re given the clothes of darkness. This is what makes living like this so appealing, it's everything you could ever want, but not a single thing that you need.
Light, light is not very appealing, in fact when first introduced to light, it assaults you. Light pierces through your clothes of darkness and leaves you naked. Light leaves you vulnerable and visible to everyone, but it is this same light, that gives you what you so desperately need, it gives you the ability to see. Throughout our entire lives we are walking down a road, if we live a life of darkness, we will always be walking through its ditches, if we, however, live a life in the light, we can see where we are walking, and follow it.
That is the little bit I can give you on light and darkness, time to go more on needs and wants.
A lot of people I know, want to live a life of light, but don't know how to go about it. They think, that if they are good decent people, that they will accomplish this, and they're...more or less correct. The problem is, they don't know how to be that good, decent person. To give an example one of my friends is a very smart guy, he generally gets all A's. So when a girl comes up to him one day, and asks him to "help" her with her homework, he says sure. Now, he said yes, thinking it was the right thing to do, I'm helping her since she can't do it. What he did was give her what she wanted. Now I'm sure you're all familiar with the phrase, "You give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. You teach a man to fish, he eats for a life time." what my friend should have done was teach the girl how to do her homework, instead of just doing it for her. Also if you truly want to live a life of light...hehe alliteration...you have to want to be good, for the sake of being good, you can't be expecting anything in return.
Now I realize, giving people what they need, instead of what they want, won't make you the most popular person ever, but if you truly want to live a life dedicated to the light, you have to do it.
I could go further into this...but I seem to be slowly losing my train of thought. So I guess I'll just end it there.
For those of you who read this, feel free to comment, whether it is good or bad, I can handle criticism pretty well. If you think of anything, like other characteristics for darkness and light, or needs and wants, please comment...uh, if you think I'm a complete douche and just want to write a comment about that, feel free, it's kind of rude but w/e. If you have a story, that has anything related to this, feel free, comment.
Thanks for reading, have a nice day, and uh....actually can I go into a small tangent here, why the fuck are there talking ads on the side of YouTube? I pulled a video into full screen yesterday, and an ad started playing on the page, so I had to exit out, mute it, and then go back in. Thing was though, every time I went into full screen, it refreshed the ad, so I actually couldn't watch it in full screen. I mean ads outside of the video, not the one that almost always plays in the video.
Anyslut, have a nice day.
  
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Very interesting. I never associated light and dark with wants and needs. Probably because for me, it doesn't really make sense in my head. The association is too far-fetched in my opinion.
What would happen if you want what you need? Or need what you want? Are you in some sort of shady grey-zone? 
You give a man what he wants, and he'll live for a day. You give a man what he needs, and he'll live for a much longer period of time.
The problem with this logic is that you're assuming that living for a day is much worst than living for a longer period of time. That is a general way of seeing it, yes, but what if living for a day was much more beneficial, for x reason, than living for a longer period of time? Same thing applies to your story with your friend and that girl. What if, for y reason, doing her homework instead of teacher how to do it is more beneficial (for example, the girl ends up having a crush on your friend and they fall in love and marry each other because he did her homework)?
I don't see how darkness is comfort. Actually I'd say that comfort is a very subjective word, and it depends on the person who's enveloped in darkness. Some will find it great, some will find it rather uncomfortable. Same thing for light.
What I truly love about this blog, is that you seem to try to avoid the words "good" and "bad" or "right" and "wrong", which is great because those words are ridden with religious connotation that end up being ambiguous and irrational.
My view: sometimes what you want trumps what you need. Pretty often actually. Firstly because most of the time what you want IS what you need, for example a glass of water or freedom or someone to talk to. Secondly because if you always think of what you need, you'll end up being lost in a ton of reflection before every single action, thinking of what might be the consequences in the long term and what you might become in 20 years because of this one action, which isn't a very productive way of existing. Instead, following what you want and simply so is probably the best way of living in my opinion, it grants so much more joy and freedom. Constantly thinking of what you need or what other people need will end up making you extremely miserably, which ironically is NOT what you need.
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On August 26 2012 04:12 Joraiem wrote:
A lot of people I know, want to live a life of light, but don't know how to go about it. They think, that if they are good decent people, that they will accomplish this, and they're...more or less correct. The problem is, they don't know how to be that good, decent person. To give an example one of my friends is a very smart guy, he generally gets all A's. So when a girl comes up to him one day, and asks him to "help" her with her homework, he says sure. Now, he said yes, thinking it was the right thing to do, I'm helping her since she can't do it. What he did was give her what she wanted. Now I'm sure you're all familiar with the phrase, "You give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. You teach a man to fish, he eats for a life time." what my friend should have done was teach the girl how to do her homework, instead of just doing it for her. Also if you truly want to live a life of light...hehe alliteration...you have to want to be good, for the sake of being good, you can't be expecting anything in return.
That last line...superb! I'm a good person, and I know it. But, I swear to a god I don't even believe in, that last line is so incredibly hard. But, of course, there are personal emotional rewards for being a good person...
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EPT
