The Medium is the Message

Ok, so I can officially say: I’m an established idealist. I think there is one ideal, and nobody reading this (including me) will ever be able to reach it or even fathom it. To be fair, I was an idealist long before I was religious so I can’t even attribute my ideas to religion. My modus operandi is to pick things that fit the closest to an ideal that it will ever be possible for me to reach, albeit in food, or family, or even relationships. I have no interest in fixing people or things, however. I think that’s the beauty of idealism, too, there is a perfection, but I don’t ever have to bother with reaching it (as long as I don’t kill anyone).

What about music? This one was a little tricky. Personally, I think the ideal of music is no autotune. A person’s natural and beautiful voice holds much more weight than anything man could create. Don’t worry, this applies to instruments too! Being blessed with the ability to play an instrument, sing, or even the blessing of knowledge, is something to be admired for what it is: a blessing. Even if you’re not religious, you have to admit that your gifts have to be attributed to something, and it could be your own hard work or your genes or even God.

So, back to how I pick “The Ideal,” it’s a construct. I decide what I think the ideal looks like, and then I get pretty darn close all the while knowing that I may have to fudge on certain things because the ideal is impossible. With family I may fudge the whole “always get along and hold hands,” because frankly my family is the definition of chaos. For spouses I may fudge the whole “love at first sight,” because I’m honest in that my personality grows on people. It just takes longer to grow on some than others, so if I’m close to the ideal I may wait way longer than I should for them to decide they like me.

In life I have a seemingly simple ideal: make something of yourself, find a love, have a few kids, then the rest I’ll kind of just make up as I go. Now of course, the ideal would be chasing it NOW. But the fudging here is I know I can’t have a spouse or kids now, so I work on other things until those are a little closer to ideal.

Last thought, popular things do not have to be the ideal. I know you’re all thinking:

But bear with me, just because everyone likes something doesn’t mean it’s the best. I haven’t specifically read the entire Bible, but I’m pretty sure there’s a whole town where the complete OPPOSITE of ideal was popular. That’s the town where God kind of decided, “Burn it, and start over.” And so, it was. Therefore, it’s possible to make completely not-ideal things the popular opinion but I highly doubt he’ll have to start over just because people like Justin Bieber exist. Because I know if I hear Apollo’s harp and its some Little Wayne and Justin Bieber mash up, I’m going to be pissed.

I can’t be sure what the ideal really is, but I can say definitively as the professor hit on: Baked Hot Cheetos are the closest to ideal humanity will ever get to. No argument. Even my cat is in awe of the mere presence of them.