I feel sorry when someone says they are not a morning person.  That means for every sunrise, every chirp by a bird, they are missing out.  Maybe they heard or saw it before, but they did not get to appreciate it for lack of positive feelings.  Do they not see how lucky we are to be standing here?  Luck is the word.  Unless you believe in a God, you have no explanation of why we are here.

Pink sky full of grace

Let me ride your orange rays

Take me from this place

There’s a certain purity surrounding the air in the morning.  Before we’ve had any time to sin for the day or to make a mistake.  It’s a brand new air, a brand new sun, a chance at reinvention.  Reinvention of oneself, reinvention of one’s actions.  There is new opportunity to replace the opportunities of yesterday.  In this limitless opportunity comes a feeling of zen.  Not zen in the traditional sense, where peace comes from a lack want.  Zen in the potential of being able to do anything.

Limitless orange

Limitless blue and purple

From you I take all

I almost feel stupid for anything I felt yesterday.  Like it was a thousand and more years ago, and the actions were as small as our place in the universe.  This smallness is not a discomfort though. It is welcoming and warm.  On this pier I woke up almost excessively early to walk to, to catch the rising of this one star in this one solar system in this one galaxy, I am complete.  I can do anything but it would be okay if I did nothing.  The universe expects nothing from me, and I expect nothing in return.

Midday orange star

Leave the horizon at noon

Float ominously

By noon, the feeling of zen and new beginnings from the sun are gone.  There was plenty of time to sin and, once again, I feel unsteady.  From this, I wait for another new day to, once again, make me feel comfortably small.

The sunset works the same as the sunrise, and I remember that being a night person is not as bad as it seems.  The setting of the sun over the horizon on the pier is filled with different colors, but it is a new experience.  The sun goes over the horizon and it is almost as if the Earth has forgiven me for the sins of the day.  In this moment I once again feel zen.  The end of the day signifies the ability for a new beginning.  And, in a cycle, the sun will once again rise in the east.  Not for me, but for this one lonely planet in this one lonely solar system.  And because it is not for me, because I am so small in comparison, I am once again, at peace.

Hi, my name is Shawn, I’m a senior majoring in psychology.  I have a really eclectic music taste, so I can recommend music from any genre.

Kant argues that enlightenment is the ability to separate oneself from man’s instinct and use qualities such as logic, morality, and reason.  It is difficult to achieve because it is self-inflicted; it is a product of one’s own mind and almost a prison within oneself.

Based on Kant’s definition, I think we mostly live in an enlightened society.  The fact that we are able to hold political systems and beliefs goes against our nature to hunt or gather or determine status by force.  Becoming emotional is another instinctive property, however, and this is not something that we have been able to against.  For example, referencing the rise of Donald Trump, many of his arguments have been argumentative fallacies which appeal to emotion rather than logic.  I would not recommend a different definition of enlightenment, but rather that we will never be truly enlightened.  In order to solely use logic and reasoning, we must completely lose our emotional states, which is not something that seems possible because of the amount that we use it now.  Another question to ask is would it be truly worth it to abandon our feelings.  Feelings are often considered the only thing that makes us “us” and makes life enjoyable.  Using only logic and reasoning, we would merely be functional, rather than “alive.”