"Electrical engineers make more money"
So I became one. Thanks to my uncle's advice, I used the most practical and least passionate motive to pick my major and career. Why? So I could get that vague sense of security offered by white collar employment while doing something that came somewhat naturally to me. Very few mornings have been met with excitement to get to the office. Sure, I really like problem solving and dreaming up lines of code to make life easier, but I'm not often driven to win the Nerd of the Month award or even meet my work with too much creativity."Church is so boring, pastors/priests are so irrelevant and it was so awkward that one time I went"
Many of my non-spiritual and/or atheist friends have echoed this sentiment over the years, but only today, after sitting through a German service in a medieval Nuremberg church did it hit me: What if we waged the same criticisms on our educational system? I've been to a boring lecture. I've taken irrelevant classes. I've found various teachers/professors and even entire universities to be unworthy of my respect. I will boldly assume most readers have had similar experiences. I'll even boldly assume anyone who made it through high school has had similar experiences. Yet has the majority of such people thrown in the gym-class towel on education all together? I think not. We march on to the pomp and circumstance of a career. Why? So we can get that vague sense of security offered by a white collar job.So why do we throw in the baptismal-font towel on the religion? How can we call it all BS when it's served generations and continues on today? Why do we let that one bad experience or even several disconnected sermons keep us from signing up for another class at another church? Where's our drive for a vague sense of security in our internal worlds? Do we rightfully leave spiritual pursuit only to those who have a sincere passion for it? Must we all love electrical engineering wholeheartedly to get a BSEE? Why can't one take the same ignoble baby steps towards God as we do to our diplomas?
I'd like to suggest a practical approach to spiritual exploration - one that doesn't require sainthood or even much enthusiasm. I'd like to suggest picking up some ritual, some meditative practice, some regular church service, some spiritual book - and give it a whirl to see what it does. Want to change your major? Then do it. Change the ritual, switch churches, find another author, but explore. Invest. Look under the damp rock we've left unturned for decades and see if it really is a cold dead world of religion, or perhaps something that, at it's best, feeds a neglected part of us, or, at it's very least, gives us a vague sense of security that even without our white collar jobs, we'll be okay. We can generalize and rationalize the straw man on a cross, or we can take spirituality for a spin - see where it goes - search instead of scoff - explore instead of blame - humor the idea we're more than chemical reactions. And you won't even have to take out student loans.
