How a Fortune Cookie Changed My Life

PRELUDE
I might have chosen to entitle this as “How a Fortune Cookie Destroyed my life,” but I did not. The general is that a change occurred, and it affected my life. How I define life may be debatable, but the point is that a change occurred in how I think about how I live my life, which I think is my definition of life, or at least for that I which lives in thought and the mind and with which I choose to identify. I had noticed other doors to this thought before, but luckily then from a distance so as only to see their destructive power, and I had quickly turned away (pretending not to notice so as not to stain my reputation as the fearless one...)-- but one cannot turn so easily from such a portentous piece of paper. That slip which one would seem silly (even) to one’s self to consider seriously ironically inhibits immediate neglect as that lack of serious consideration, (via) the converse {could this be the unseen in the irony, so that it is not actually ironic at all? How prevalent is this in both irony and paradox?} of not allowing the fortune to be earnestly disregarded or hurriedly shoved form the memory. So just as I had to read it when the cookie had been cracked, I had to consider it, for if something is in my mind then it is considered, and what the cookie said could not be lightly considered for long. Its words grasped to me ever tighter, as I could not fight them off, for to do so would have seemed ridiculous, like vehemently swatting away a butterfly which landed on the sleeve-- but this was no butterfly, though it floated to me in such a form, and was rather a giant mosquito requiring a quick and fatal blow before it exsanguinated me, or infected that me with a deadly pathogen. My fortune read: “Your kindness will soon be rewarded.” I was now doomed forever, as its truth was slain in the same act as its being revealed.

Yes, the title might be overly dramatic and cliche, but I wished to emphasize how drastically a change in thought (as apposed to one not of the metaphysical) can influence my life, as afore defined.

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I seize that time to incorporate, for I possess expectance for change with introduction to a new idea > philosophy’s importance (being) in it’s ability (power) to transform a life, or rather way of life which may then be translated to the entire human race.... But then the thought comes that perhaps we only change our perspectives and definitions to make it thus a satisfying, no, happy place, and that thought right there is the pangs of the satisfactory drive, a drive towards progression that we may never stand still in society or personal life... what the Hell is progression? It has been marked in ways to increase life expectancy, decrease early-childhood deaths, and increased nutrition (as in less sickness) and communication (between larger ranges and people groups)... but these are quantitative, and we are ever seeking to fill the qualitative with this. We may reach the point where we have... may we ever reach a point? What is all relative? What is the point of progression but to reawaken our happiness, to find it again in something else which of course means it is further ahead... the future; not bettering, not worsening, just differing to attempt accommodation for the present desires for satisfaction. Is “progression” as (ideally) defined then even possible? Could it be impeded merely by those who fail to or refuse to see for selfish ambition? What then is selfish ambition? Was I not above, at very first, approaching a proof that all action, whether veiled by a drive of deepER satisfaction or not, out of selfish ambition? Or must one have to see it as selfish for it to be so, and the the progression would be for something which parades as fulfillment but has just not yet been unmasked? Ultimate satisfaction, or true selflessness in which the person believes to be and is? Then the two must never be in view, though the are mutual necessities... Or is this ultimate groom of satisfaction finally able to see the bride, and to have the selflessness presented to him? Is satisfaction a necessary byproduct of selflessness or not, and would ultimacy change this? Belief (as resulting in decision to value) is necessary for one to have values at all.