{"id":707,"date":"2009-05-06T10:56:06","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T15:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/?p=707"},"modified":"2009-05-06T10:56:06","modified_gmt":"2009-05-06T15:56:06","slug":"despair-who-has-time-for-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/06\/despair-who-has-time-for-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Despair? Who has time for that?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Florien at Unreasonable Faith<\/a> asked his readers what they do when they face despair. There are quite a few good responses, but the comment by “darlene”<\/a> takes the cake hands down.<\/p>\n

I can only speak for me, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever face despair.<\/p>\n

How can I despair, when I know that my actions have the ability to change and effect my world? How can I despair when I know that the only \u00e2\u20ac\u0153forces\u00e2\u20ac\u009d moving against me are either random chance or scientifically based or just other humans being nits? How can I despair when I am free to make choices as needed to meet the circumstances, without worrying about an overseerer who may disapprove?<\/p>\n

Despair? When I can look at my life and claim absolute responsibility for all my triumphs as well as my failures? When I can know that I am where I am because of my own abilities and actions and ambitions; and that if I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like where I am I can change it?<\/p>\n

I have so much power over my own life, and I am mindful of that power. I fill my days with good books; and educating my child (I homeschool); and being a spouse; and working with my dogs; learning new things and reinforcing old lessons and doing volunteer work that is meaningful to me\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I choose my life, and the people in it.<\/p>\n

Despair? Who has time for that? For me despair is a luxury, a chance to wallow in defeat for a few minutes, before I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m planning a comeback. Sure, I get sad, blue, sick, tired, sick AND tired, annoyed, etc\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6but despair?<\/p>\n

I think true despair comes from helplessness\u00e2\u20ac\u201ca complete inability to control one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life and the events therein. Since I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the option of handing control of my life over to anyone else, despair doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really play a part. It has nothing to latch onto.<\/p>\n

So how does this atheist face despair? By not giving it a toehold in the first place.<\/p>\n

But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Florien at Unreasonable Faith asked his readers what they do when they face despair. There are quite a few good responses, but the comment by “darlene” takes the cake hands down. I can only speak for me, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever face despair. How can I despair, when I know that my actions have … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Despair? Who has time for that?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11],"tags":[269,829],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-belief-and-faith","category-general","tag-despair","tag-unreasonable-faith","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}