The number of ways in which I was a teenage nerd was legion. Debate nerd. Drama nerd. Band nerd. Model United Nations nerd. Comedy nerd. Pottery club nerd. (I'm not making that up.) And finally, philosophy and spirituality nerd.
Who could blame me? You try growing up in a Bahá'í household in suburban Seattle with a father who was a sewer truck dispatcher/abstract painter/science-fiction novelist and not become a geek. Good luck with that. But the great thing I did experience was a household FULL of eclectic and occasionally profound ideas. Our bookshelves were stocked with poetry, holy writings, art books and cheap science-fiction paperbacks. Those bookshelves were my brain's incubator -- my brain-cubator, rather. (Hey, I just made that up!)
America, I'm still a nerd. But as I got to be well-known as an actor, I felt this pressing need to create something good and beautiful on ye olde internet. The Huffington Post and Boobs.com notwithstanding, most of the web is a wasteland. And I thought about all those The Office fans in their teens and 20s who, like myself at that age, might want a safe place to explore the meaning of life and what it is to be human.
So I started SoulPancake. What is SoulPancake? It's a website and a book that explores all the questions that make us human. I believe our lives are full of questions. Our journey, from crib to coffin, is made up of us wrestling with these questions. Stuff like:
* What's one tiny change you want to make today?
* Soulmate in Seven: Describe your soulmate in seven words.
* Scribe to Skin: What quote, lyric, poem, or piece of prose do you love enough to want permanently imprinted on your body?
* What personal dream have you totally given up on?
* What's your two-word poem?
Or my personal favorite:
* Why is talking about God so dang awkward?
I like thinking of life as a kind of creative and spiritual journey. And that's why SoulPancake was founded -- to fuel this transcendent adventure of our lives. Also, to potentially chat up cute hipsters in skinny jeans and flannel who are "virtually" exploring Life's Big Questions at coffee shops in all corners of this great, messed-up world. If we spent as much time talking about God, love, mortality, and beauty as we spent talking about our cell-phone service providers, I think we'd be better off as a species and a culture. Call me old-fashioned, but I like a good 3 a.m. coffee- and/or drug-fueled debate!
So today, dear reader, your challenge is:
List the 5 questions you HATE not knowing the answers to.
Here are mine:
1. Do we really have free will?
Personally, I believe in an all-omniscient, creative power that courses through the fiber of this and many other universes to come. That's just me. (Bill Maher, roll eyes here.) But if that's the case -- if this all-powerful force sees everything -- does that mean my choices (which feel so tangible on a moment-by-moment basis) are seen by one who doesn't experience time the way we do? And if they're seen, are they predetermined? It's a real puzzler for me. And for stoned college students the world over.
2. Who really shot JFK?
There are so many question marks about this one. Really? It was one guy with a rifle in the book depository with connections to the mob and the KGB? But he did it all on his own? It's the first fucking question I'm going to ask my loved ones as I make my way down that tunnel of light to the kingdom of eternity.
3. How the hell will humanity find a way to live in harmony with itself (and with our planet) -- and will we have to destroy ourselves in order to get there?
The best I can do is to do my best. I drive a Prius and recycle batteries. I try and raise my son with values and a global consciousness. But all the current systems -- political, environmental, economic -- are so broken and out of balance. I truly believe humankind needs a spiritual revolution to transform itself. But are we going to destroy ourselves first? Another puzzler. Only this one tends to get me really depressed.
4. Why the hell did I buy an iPad?
It looked so damn snazzy, and I'm an Apple geek as well, but I never use it! Did I ($800 later) fall victim to crass commercialism? I like to think I'm above that, but am I any different than my son, who wants whatever sugar-laden cereal happens to be showing in the ad before whatever cartoon he's watching?
5. How can I know greater peace and humility in my daily life?
I don't want to go all Eat, Pray, Love on your asses, but it's the spiritual challenges in our day-to-day lives that I find the hardest. Staying present. Truly listening to people. Keeping my heart open. Living in gratitude and not resentment. Breathing. Releasing my caffeine-induced anxiety on a daily or hourly basis. Finding some freakin' balance. Ya feel me, homies?
OK HuffPosties, now it's your turn. Give it a shot right here on ye olde comment board. Reveal something about yourself. Take a risk. Dig deep. Ready? Go!
LIST THE 5 QUESTIONS YOU HATE NOT KNOWING THE ANSWERS TO.
G. Elijah Dann: A Note to the Pope: Thanks, But I Do Have Meaning in Life
Oh.....here's another......wtf is it with people voting for Republicans as though they had provided any sort of competent or even sane governance since the 1950s?
2) Why does Brendon Fraser still get work?
3) Why is "The Rock" not unemployed?
4) i couldn't get past the awesomeness of the first 3.
I have been battleing Depression, ADHD and Bi-Polar my whole life.
It did not stop me from running my business or writing or book and I try not to let things bother me.
But for many years I did try many psychologist to help. I tried everything Welbutin, Addral, ritlin OMG I tried every pill there is on the market. NOTHING HELPED
then 2 years ago I ruptured a disk in my back and was prescribed 5mg x 4 a day of Percocet and OMG everything was clear, No anger, I could concentrate, I can work 8 hours straight and not take a break, I can sit on my computer and answer 100 emails in a row. My life was great. I even wrote 3 novels tat I started and stopped for the past 20 years
BUT no Dr will listen to me when I say that it cured all my problems. I really am beating my head against the wall because it is like talking to the friggin wall
So why do they not listen to what I am saying? It's not insurance because I pay out of pocket. I really am so tired of what is going on in my head I tried (and obviously failed) suicide and for the only time in my life I was sane.
4. Because it's just like cereal - remember that when someone (usually a tv or movies exec type) argues that what they put on the toob doesn't influence anyone to do things like Columbine, but they make their money because they believe that advertisements can influence people to do things such as spend their hard-earned money on things they don't need, or even want all that much. (I can't wait to get myself a Mac Book Air now -- I guess to go along with my Mac Book and two other Macs that sit on my office desks.)
5. Chill. Remember that when scientists pointed the Hubble at a spot that looked like it held nothing, there were 44,000 galaxies there! We just don't count all that much. If you look at it in the right perspective, that frees you to relax and enjoy life!
Btw, dream I've kinda given up on: Building my own electric car company -- since everyone is doing it wrong, and current car companies will never get it right because the company itself needs to be completely re-imagined too!
(Enjoyed your post - hope you do more!)
2) - Why did any American vote for Dubya after he lied America into a war?
3) Why can't Americans change? I thought they wanted change but things are worse. Well that is change sort of but not what Americans were hoping for.
4) How can the same men who sit on the bench of the Supreme Court and decided Bush should be president, turn around and decide a corporation is a legal person?
5) - Will America change or will it go the way of the Romans or the Spartans? Sparta is a good analogy because of the constant search for war but I like the Roman analogy because in the end the Romans fell because they gave up all the things which made them strong.
^) - I have to ask one last question. How can the country which voted for Obama have people who are fans of Sarah Palin. I really need an answer on that one.
1. The Great Spirit just doesn't give a shit -- he's busy playing Peeping Tom with this whole other civilization way off on the other side of the universe that's just WAY more interesting than us.
2. When we finally find a way to wander around all those parallel universes out there, c.f. Jerry O'Connell tv series "Sliders" (you're not the only one who can geek out), we'll find out that this is the key to knowing that we're back in "our" universe; in one he was killed by the KGB, in one by the mob; in one by LBJ; in one by Jackie; in one by a young kid named Bill Clinton; in one by your mother; etc., etc.
3. No, we don't have to destroy ourselves -- just our corporatocracy, which is really the reason we are doing all that destroying. No one individually really wants to do it, but the corporate "person" is a sociopath (see the documentary "The Corporation" if you haven't).
(Whoops, forgot there's a limit on these comments now -- have to finish it in a 2nd one ... sorta like a sequel.)
2. How soon until we'll see natural gas at the gas station?
3. Where did they park the time machine, and who's got the keys?
4. Is there another planet open for colonization where they have neither computers, electricity, nor internet?
5. Does there come a point of diminishing returns when technology stops being a boon, and starts being a burden?
1. How do batteries work?
2. As much as I want to believe Bigfoot exists, why are all 'Bigfoot researchers' completely insane?
3. Why does the idea of a cross-country road trip seem so alluring to me?
4. Why do people still believe in God?
5. Why are Canadians so much nicer than Americans?
2. They are teabaggers
3. It's fun!
4. Haven't a clue
5. I'm sure Canadians are fine people, but don't think that all Americans are selfish clods...some of us are really nice.
Though some people take it a little too far.
Why is mankind so stupid and refuses to learn from their past mistakes.
Ego - No matter what it was that failed people always think they can do it better that they will not fall into the traps the other person did...of course they are so worried about falling into those traps that they create a whole new set of traps that were unforeseen and ultimately they fail
Are science and religion actually one and the same?
Do I see myself or my reflection in a mirror?
Are the bizarre facts of my life merely coincidence?
What caused the disappearance of the Hittite civilization?