I dislike contention in any form.  I don't like shouting, I don't like ugly words and I DONT LIKE IT disguised as a 'discussion'.  To me it means people are shutting down and refusing to listen in order to make themselves out to be a victor of some sort.  NO one actually is the victor.  No wonder I could never get into Debate in high school. I think it would have just made me cry.  Don't get me wrong.  I pick my fair share of fights with Craig, but we both end it quickly and apologies are quick in coming.  There are two sides to every debate.  I need people around me who are willing to see both sides for who and/or what they are.  That does not mean one must change- only understand.  

You know the kind.  The day hits 10AM and you think "When does it end?"  By noon you wonder if you should just hide in your room.  At 3PM you wonder if you are dreaming because horror like this only happens in dreams and in the movies.  By bedtime you have to take a sleeping aide to forget all of the other things you have forgotten to fix/address/pay/clean.  Yup.  We had one of those days this week.  

I have finally heard it.  This week someone within my hearing said, "I think the purpose of life is to get as much pleasure as you can before you die." The first thing that came to my mind was 'Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.' (2 nephi 28:7)  I thought, "How horrible.  Gluttony is certianly not the point of our existence and only breeds discontent."

Then I began to think about the fact that we are supposed to enjoy the time we are given here on this earth.  So, how do these two philosphies fit together?  Or do they?

The thought occured to me that both the natural man in us and our spiritual selves have desires.  The natural man craves the carnal, the sensual, the endorphic (not bad for a made-up word, eh?). So what does the spiritual man crave?  He craves the creative, the uplifiting, the giving.  Both seek to feed self, but one desires to give back as it is fed.