Children of Light, Children of Darkness

Anonymous If you've been a fly on the wall in our class, you know that these two terms actually come with some serious and deep connotations.  They mean life and death in some situations.  Sitting back to think about that puts me in a very sobering place.  I have assumed the position as a child of the light.  I have considered myself enlightened and let my gut wrench at the fact that I believe there are actually people who will not become enlightened like me and what that will mean for them.  I have often laid in bed at night thinking about this predicament.  To you it may seem like a simple, "Just change what you believe" kind of deal, but it's really not that simple.  If you've ever tried to change a belief you once held dear, you would know that it is not an easy process in the slightest. 

Remember the day you found out Santa wasn't real?  Until that moment, you thought you were the brightest person in the world, you believed yourself to be a child of light.  It wasn't until that terrible day, you found out that you were really a child of the darkness; believing in something that wasn't true.  I guess, the thing I've often wondered is whether these ideas are subjective or not.  I feel like they are more subjective than we would like them to be because then we can't know for sure if we are one or the other.  In one person's world, we may be a child of darkness, while in another person's world, we are very much considered a child of light and we then feel as though we don't know which to believe.  Was our life better with Santa or without him? We have no certain way of knowing, so we take our best guess and hope that we will live a good, fulfilling, and wonderful life along the way.

How fair is it that I have put boundaries on what beliefs give a person a deep understanding of this life and the next?  It isn't fair at all.  From reading about the Qumran community, I have seen that I do not like how I feel when the readings tell me that I am not a child of light in their eyes.  It makes me feel defensive of the truths I have learned.  It makes me want to tell them, "You're wrong."  Do I make others feel that way?  Probably so.  The question is, what am I going to do about that?  Well, I think I'm still working on an answer to that question.  What I can tell you is this...

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~Mark Twain

Travel has helped me open my mind once more, and it will continue to do so as I continue my adventures.  So, thank you Wang Center, and Dr. Finitsis for opening up this opportunity for us.  It has already changed me and guided me in ways I would have never learned at home.