Second Opinion Paper

Tell me what you think is going on. I mean in the big picture. In a page or two.

Examples:

1) What’s going on is that there is just stuff, exploding out from the Big Bang forever, I guess. We’re temporary specks on a minuscule piece of dust in one corner of that exploding stuff. We give our lives whatever meaning they have. Evolution made us, and will leave us behind, but the death of the sun and the flying apart of the universe will leave evolution behind. That’s pretty much it.

2) What’s going on is that God created us, and this world for us to live and learn in. We’ve screwed it up, pretty badly. The story of this world and of our lives is the story of God trying to hunt us down or woo us back. His unrequited love for us is the answer to our messed up lives. Finding our own way—or better, all of us helping each other find our way as a community—to a home we’ve never known because we wouldn’t accept it, is what our lives are about.

3) I don’t really claim to know what’s going on. In a sense that’s a copout, because for one thing, I know people around me have reasons to live and do what they do, and besides, I eat food, bathe once in a while, and generally get up without committing suicide every morning. But on the other hand, what it really is that I am trying to do besides get through the day with minimum hassle, I don’t know. Sleeping on my friends’ couches and bumming smokes off my girlfriend is about the extent of my rebellion against the Man, so obviously I don’t respect myself or those who care for me enough to get off my lazy butt and actually ask and answer the questions you have to ask, let alone answer them and get to work making a difference.

Whatever. This is your essay. This is what you think. Not what you think I want to hear. Not what your mom or your pastor or your best friend thinks. Don’t try to impress. Say what you mean.