What makes for a successful life? Is it to make a lot of money; to be the best at something; to have authority over others? Or is it to reach the fulfillment of what your life is supposed to be? A woodchuck doesn’t have that problem. Its instincts govern its life. It never contemplates the stars at night in awesome wonder.

Our lives are governed by how we learn to think, which leads us to the choices we make. We easily predict how other creatures may react to a situation. Their reactions are limited by their instincts, which vary from insects, to wolves, to whales, or eagles. We, however, with our intellects and egos, have been known to tell our children, “You can be anything you want to be, if you work hard enough at it.” I think that statement is smearing it on a bit thick.

We do have freedoms, but not without the consequences our actions might inspire. There are laws that rule the universe, which cannot be overlooked. If you have good balance, and train enough, you may be able to walk a tightrope across Niagara Falls, but if you stumble off the wire, you will be at the mercy of gravity and rushing water. We have not developed the ability to fly without some kind of an airfoil device, and the balance rod you carry will not ease your descent.

We have been given laws we’re told we must observe if we are to fulfill our legitimate destiny. They were given to us by an ancient man, who claimed he received them from God. That claim has been reason for many to disregard them. What a bunch of malarkey it is for anyone to claim an intimate conversation with God. He’s got to be crazy! But that claim was effective at the time. Whether that is fact or fiction, I think it quite common for people in deeply concentrated meditation, to feel they have effectively received messages from God.

It is part of the innate intelligence of the human to know things he didn’t know he knew, until he developed them in meditation. The works of people like Galileo, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, or Martin Luther King Jr., came to fruition through their mental persistence in things their minds were focused on. We might have a bit more of that were it not for the cell-phones, TV’s, and other devices that do such an efficient job of distracting us from our natural meditative thinking processes.

For every truth there are an infinite number of falsehoods. Example: 2+2=4, but to an ignorant person, there are an infinite number of answers. It could be 5 or 110. There are as many false answers as there are numbers. If one is misinformed, one can get lost in the murky clouds of oblivion. This may sound a bit farfetched, but I think this is what happens to many misguided people who get in trouble, and no longer seem to realize which direction is up.

Then there are those who would say that up is any direction, it all depends on where you are standing on this circular globe. Language can be used to induce confusion. A self interested confusion specialist said a few years ago, “It all depends on what is is.”

Getting back to the laws, has anyone ever rejected them on the basis that they didn’t make sense? Has anyone ever said that you can have a continuously successful life by bearing false witness against your neighbor, or coveting his wife, or anything that is his, stealing, or killing? These things are all covered by one Golden Rule, which few would claim as false. It paraphrases as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” What a successful wonderful world full of productive, cooperating people we would have, if just that one rule were universally practiced.

Of course the downside would be we’d have a lot of police, lawyers and judges out of work and going on the welfare rolls. We wouldn’t need a Constitution, or hardly even a government. I can hear you now, “Hey, Westlund you dreamer, are you nuts?” Maybe so; but I don’t really expect such serenity to happen, at least not for a few more generations, but wouldn’t it be nice! May God bless America.

Richard Westlund is a Collins resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com