The Day We Will All Wake Up

I was driving this morning and passed a cool sports car that had a young man and a pretty lady by his side. That car would have been something I would've wanted in my youth. And the lady was a fringe benefit. It all reminded me of a time when I thought that stuff was important.

Every guy understood that when you had a car you had a date. And having an expensive sporty vehicle would improve the type of date you could pull.

But we also all understood that when a woman came with the car, she was not likely to become a wife. It just wasn't that serious. We knew that our value hinged on that car. It was an acceptable compromise. Or so we thought.

As I drove this morning I also remembered the time when I woke up. You know what I mean? It's when we have an epiphany of sorts. We accidentally ask ourselves a question: "Is this all there is?"

Of course that question led me to other questions like, "What do I want out of life?" or "Why am I here?" and "When I die, then what?" But the effect is the same. I begin to question my identity and the nature of reality. When we do such things we cannot look at anything or any relationship the same anymore.

Imagine a guy, sitting in that sports car with his lady, suddenly blurting out, "What's the meaning of life? Where are we headed?" I can imagine the woman saying something like, "You're not getting weird on me, are you?"

The sad thing is that we can ignore these questions all our lives. We can live our lives like phantom dreams, looking for the next pleasure or experience. We can seek comfort and security, or just importance and never consider the deeper issues. We can keep ourselves asleep. But then there comes a time when we all will wake up and realize what we've gained or lost in this life. We will be confronted with reality no matter what we believe. There is no choice in the matter.