Soul Searching

In my quest to figure out life, I've discovered something that has proven to be very thought provoking. It's a video from TED of Rick Warren, who was the pastor that gave the invocation at my friend's (I wish) inauguration. There was some controversy around him and his views which made me hesitant to watch the video, but I'm glad I did. While I don't agree with his main belief, that being the existence of God, his video really got to the heart of my understanding of what it is we're supposed to do with our lives.

It's unfortunate that the debate of life's meaning tends to have a religious connotation, resulting in a lack of discussion among people. As Rick Warren points out, this is not a religious question, but rather, a human question. Here are the other things that I like about what he said:

• There's more to life than work, TV, sleep, work, TV, sleep...
• The environment does not belong to us and we are responsible for taking care of it.
• What we believe dictates our behavior which dictates who we become.
• It is imperative for us to break our materialistic ways to realize that life is not about what we have. This is accomplished by giving away our material possessions (money).
  
• We should use "what's in our hands" (career, income, and influence) to make the world a better place.
  

While all of those points are important to me, the last one strikes me the most. He points out that I've been given talent, education, and ideas that have made me the person I am today. I'm wired to do information security, because for some reason that's where my life has taken me. I should use my career, income, and influence to make the world a better place. It's not about me, it's about the world. It really doesn't matter what I do as a career, all that matters is how I make a difference in the world with what I have.

Yeah, this is all deep, I know. It's also important to me and I'm proud to be able to confidently say that these are things I believe in. I have made a lot of progress over the past year, and I hope that this will help someone else to consider these human questions. At some point I'll blog about security, but for right now I'm trying to figure out how my passion fits into my life's purpose. I figure that would be a good thing to know.

Gettin Stuff Done

I feel like I've made a lot of progress lately, and while it's probably not that much, I feel like I've figured a lot of stuff out.

First off, I've figured out what type of volunteer work I want to do. Ever since I stopped being involved in Boy Scouts, I've felt like a lazy bum because I haven't been doing any community service. I've had issues trying to figure out what type of work I wanted to do. I tried doing some volunteering with a local organization but I just ended up painting a mural for an elementary school. It was fun, but I didn't feel like I was really making a difference.

After a search for literally about 6 or 7 months, I finally figured out that I want to do IT work (why not, I know how) for a non-profit. Through the help of one of my coworkers, who happens to be on a board for a particular non-profit here in Chicago, I'm going to be meeting with some people next week to see how I can help them with their environment. It's a non-profit that helps homeless people after they get out of the hospital to make sure that they're healthy, and to help them put their lives back together. It's a great organization, and I'm really excited to hear more about how I can help them.

The biggest motivator for me to volunteer (besides Obama) has been my new interest in philosophy. I've been reading a philosophy book, and so far I've read about Socrates, Plato, and I'm starting to get into Aristotle. It's opened my eyes to an entirely new way of thinking about the world and human existence. I still have a lot left to read, but I feel good about what I've accomplished so far.

Other than that, I've been:

• doing some studying for the CISSP
• trying to find a parking spot for my car (since I got kicked out of my really nice parking spot, forcing me to park on the street)
• realizing that I'm really lucky to still have a job
• traveling to NJ, WI, and OH
• learning more about SAN security

I'm hoping that by writing all of this down, my brain will hopefully make more sense and quiet down for a while. I'm also trying to write here more so that people I know don't think that I fell off the face of the earth. It would be nice to get in touch with some people from college, but without a Facebook account my chances are dissapointingly low. Too bad I'll never give in and get an account.