You see, I'm very devious.  By regulating the regularity of my posting to this journal, I'm actually making myself more of a commodity.  It's a supply and demand issue.  If I post everyday, my words become less valuable.  Therefore, by refraining from posting I'm actually increasing the "stock value" of these entries.

And consequently increasing the amount of bull----.

Alright.  I admit it.  I'm a bit of a slacker.  Not just a slacker, though.  I am in Iowa right now.  There isn't a whole lot going on in Iowa but a few cows and some corn -- and the corn hasn't even come up yet. 

Even now, after my half-hearted apologies, I don't have very much to talk about.  Instead, I'm going to briefly rebut the comments from last time.

Before I get started, I actually would like to publicly state how annoyed with myself I am for not seeing the finale to American Idol.  Congrats to Fantasia (since I know she Loves to read my journal).  I always knew it would be her.

Anyway, in response to my little rant about the non-necessity of meaning in everyday life, Sara wrote the following:

"I would have to say that people say things happen for a reason in order to explain why what is happening to them is happening to them. good or bad. I mean think back to 9/11. There were many people that were supposed to be at work but were otherwise hung up because of things out of their control...it is hard for them not to believe that someone or something was watching out for them. How many times have I sat at a red light and have quickly accelrated through an intersection when the light turns green and those few times I have hesitated for any reason, someone has gone barrelling through a red light...It is hard not to believe that things happen for a reason...of course then you could just say that life is just a serious of coincidences, you win some you lose some It all depends on your beliefs...and there is no right or wrong about it....
Some people just need those unanswered questions, answered...it is the control freak in humans...the need and want to be right and feel the need to have an answer for everything."

She, of course, is talking about exactly what I wrote about.  The fact that people feel the need to have a reason is the only 'reason' (you like that?) that they actually find one.  It's an apparition, a spectre, a ghost, una fantasma.

One of the most valuabel lessons I've ever learned was the Wizard's First Rule (gingerly stolen from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth novels): People are stupid.  They will believe anything if they want to enough, or are too afraid not to.

That doesn't really make it right though, does it?  Let's examine her 9/11 example.  There were many people who decided not to get on those planes, and lots who decided not to go into work at the WTC that day.  For them, it was simply meant to be.  What about all those people who decided to go in on their day off -- to catch up on work?  What about all those people who had been waiting standby to get on the plane?  Had fate abandoned them?  Perhaps reason had eluded them. 

There are coincidences that happen and sometimes they're crappy.  That's the name of the game.  And there definitely IS a right or wrong.  We may not be able to discover that particular answer, but it is out there.

I mean, just because we're control freaks and want to control everything or even be privy to the strings of some cosmic harp -- that doesn't mean we actually are.  It just simply means that if you think you are, you're delusional. 

Jenny, my other responder, professed her lack in spirituality but confessed to still seeing reason in things.  So, I'll leave you with some questions then -- perhaps you can clarify.

Who or what, precisely, is providing a basis for these reasons?  I mean, if you feel they exist -- what is the scale upon which the universal equilibrium is measured?