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You cannot escape.
Not now.
Not ever.

If you were to realize that you were immortal, and that there was no way to escape via death, would you live your life any differently? There are those of us who are aware of this. We live our lives differently. Some ponder the various philosophical possibilities of our existence. They have some ideas. We just know. It is an inate part of our very being. Death becomes us. We become in tune with it. We do not fear it. We embrace it. It comes to us and we nod, knowingly. Many of us do not fall into the latest fashion of trying to keep this life going for as long as possible. We understand it is just one chapter in a book without end.

Jump to the left.
Bounce to the right.

We are all different. We try very hard to be the same. Sometimes we lose bits of ourselves in the process and yet we have this need for socialization that requires letting go of certain bits of the self. There is a necessary negotiation between the personal reality and the collective reality. The personal reality is made up of what is real to the individual and what is part of that individual. The collective reality is created by the intermingling of various personal realities within a social structure. The collective reality has many levels. There is the overall collective reality, the world view, and that breaks down into subset after subset until you get to your circle of closest peers. There are certain things you always do to gain their acceptance. We choose our closest circle of the collective reality because these are individuals we relate to, usually because we share common ground and don't have to surrender as much to "fit in" and be accepted.

Advancement.
Achievement.
Sailing on crystal clear waters.

If you know you are being tested, will you do better on the test or will you be more likely to overplay, think too much, and miss out on your natural tendencies? This all depends. If you realize this life is a test and that you need to accomplish certain personal goals during it, you may be more likely to try to accomplish those goals. You also might become less likely to accomplish them because sometimes a watched pot never boils. You have to achieve a balance. You have to let things come to you and you must wait. There are many cards in the deck. They don't get dealt to you all at once. Immortality is your trump card. It allows you to be patient and wait. There is always more time.

Back to the drawing board.

Life is an ongoing test, both of the self and how we relate to other realities. Other people are these realities. Sometimes we understand their realities. Sometimes we do not. It is a greater test when we cannot understand and cannot relate. We laugh at people for doing stupid things and yet often forget that these things may be an essential part of their reality. We think it is pretty smart to write pieces of fact and fiction and submit them to a website. There are a lot of people who think that is a pretty stupid waste of time when you could be out somewhere seeing how many firecrackers you can explode in your ass at one time. Both groups are fulfilling something that is part of their shared reality, but people in one group think what the other group does is stupid. Invariably, there is an overlay between the two groups and worlds collide. We put on different faces for different people. We show different sides of our personal reality to different people. We hide other sides and expose them elsewhere.

How can I advance more quickly?

When you deal with the issues and problems and patterns of your existence, you have the capacity to advance. To advance you have to wait to die. Everyone dies at exactly the right moment. The trick is to die well after having fulfilled your mission in this life. That is how you advance, and you cannot advance more quickly. You can only advance as things happen. Sometimes you have to wait for things to happen. You can't always make them happen just because you want them too. If you accept immortality as part of your existence, then you know you have time, but if there is an opportunity to overcome obstacles and issues in this life rather than repeat them in the next...

I think I'll have a pina colada.

You can't be too serious about it. You'll collapse into yourself. Life was meant to be enjoyed and relished as much as it was meant to be learned from. You learn most things when you are not trying to learn anything at all. Pay attention. You might finish that pina colada and come to a realization about something that just happened. You'll see your life taking on a series of patterns. Why do you always seem to become close friends with a person who ends up betraying you? Why do you always seem to trip over that same brick in the walkway to your grandmother's house? Why are you always just a few minutes too late to witness big events that are happening? There is something to it all. When we figure out what it is, we get closer to advancement. We'll live again and we'll remember the nature of the patterns and the self will enable us to escape them. We'll move on. We will be more accepting of the seemingly odd elements of other personal universes and allow people to blossom. Life is a classroom and immortality is a very big campus. Feel free to run in the hallways. You might not realize what you've just learned from the experiences of today until many years... or lifetimes... down the road.

Out on the street I was talkin' to a man
He said "there's so much of this life of mine that I don't understand"
You shouldn't worry I said that ain't no crime
Cause if you get it wrong you'll get it right next time, next time.

You need direction, yeah you need a name
When you're standing in the crossroads every highway looks the same
After a while you can recognize the signs
So if you get it wrong you'll get it right next time, next time.
--Gerry Rafferty
Get It Right Next Time

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