No rips in existence

Just as there are no rips or tears in existence (since the non-existence of existence, within existence, would be impossible)... ...There are no rips or tears in your experience. Nothing is wasted - though the relevance of events and occurrences may not be readily apparent or ever apparent. This is the "not-knowing" aspect of the human condition that we must accept. So stay open minded - don't write things/people/etc. off. But at the same time, don't hold onto things because of fear - then you might become a hoarder or neurotic. And don't "try" to notice or glean significance from anything. Not that these are easy things to do but they are likely worth getting better at.

On suffering

If we didn't go through "hell", we would never realize when we'd arrived in "heaven"

It's an interesting imagination exercise to think of all those people who seem to oppose one's will, sleeping in their beds.

Are they "evil"? Or just trying to shape the world according to their interests.

But what if their interests are purely selfish?

Are my interests purely selfish? Well, I'd like to leave the planet a place to be enjoyed by subsequent people, as I enjoyed it.

But then again, people are shaped by their surroundings. And the people who are born into a different world will not know the "regret" I fear they might feel for "missing out on what I had".... Because they can't. They will only know their own life. Who knows, they might laugh and say oh what awful lives you led...

For if we are headed for collapse, if our earth cannot sustain us in such numbers and usage of resources, then surely life will get simpler. More connected to the natural systems and rhythms of the earth. Right now we float in a sea of oil and gas, and maybe life is better for it. I don't really know.

In the end the only conclusion I come to is that life, regardless of its true origins, if there was such a thing, is bigger than all the thoughts and concepts and illusions we might apply to it. And being small, and within such a vast existence, let us merely try to do our best to create the world we want to see.