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| Connor Tracy |
Throughout life, everyone is faced with decisions. In a world filled with pressure to succeed, it is easy to become consumed with questions about the future. What career should I choose? Where should I live? Will I have enough money? Should I get married? Our minds are filled with questions like these everyday, of which the answers to them seem to be essential to moving forward in life. We are cautious to answer these questions because we feel that these answers will shape our lives and who we are. However it is my belief that this is not so.
When making decisions, many factors come into play. Many times, our appetites for money, approval, and acceptance fuel this process. The pressures of society to be successful and live up to the standards of others force us to make choices that conform to this model. We feel that if we choose outside of these expectations we will be ostracized and alone. The end result, more times than not, is that we make the decision that we have been conditioned to believe is right. We let the appetites of those around us influence our thoughts and control our future. The problem with this is that societal acceptance is not the goal of life. The motives of people shift throughout time based on the situations that they deal with and therefore will not stand as reasonable when broken down and studied. On the other hand, it is my belief that the goal of life does not change.
Ideals do exist. They are what we should look to as a goal to strive towards. By so doing we bring ourselves closer to the greater good, which I believe is the purpose of life. This should not be confused with any particular religion or practice, because at the time I am uncertain to whether or not there is only one set way to achieve this goal. To question if absolute truths do exist in the world seems a bit ridiculous when you actually imagine what it would be like without them. Popular opinion would rule. Good could be bad and bad could be good, depending on what people wanted.
It is our duty to fight against this. We must take time to seek out these truths and make them a part of ourselves. This is extremely difficult in the times that we live in, when everyone is pushing in the opposite direction, but it is essential for the future that we preserve and spread the belief in these ideals. How to do this is a major question. I believe that it requires building a strong internal core. A person must search through the writings of great thinkers, religious texts, history, and literature to obtain images of these ideals. Once these images are in a person’s mind, they then have a basis to work from. This foundation must be maintained, because the surrounding world will always try to destroy it. Although this is a difficult task, people should not become discouraged. Fighting to find the truth and make the right decisions for the right reasons is essential to living out what it means to be human.
This new base must replace any other foundation as the key judgement factor in making decisions. It will help to guide you through life, and through your actions that result from the influence of this foundation, you will be brought closer to the true purpose of life and the greater good. The process of obtaining these images and creating this new perspective is not an easy one, but anything that is easy cannot truly last.
Connor Tracy, of Mayfield, Ky., is a freshman McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. He is studying political science, philosophy and Pan-African studies.