Engaging the culture, change the world?

So I guess I still havent gotten over making fun of this quote, SPU's theme verse, oh wait it only exists in the SPU bible (jk). I am all for it but a year removed from the pep ralleys (phil dog's speaches) I dont really know what it means anymore(I am giving myself a lot of credit believing that I actually understood it when I was at spu, fish stories are the best, they are the only type of story that gets better everytime you tell it). So post graduation I think I have made a legitamate attempt at engaging the world (I know longer understand the idea of engaging culture, let alone "the culture". Everywhere I go people do things differently, and believe different things, to say the least that is a lot of culture. The funny, sad thing is I still like my culture the best, not necessarily the culture of the US, but the culture of the life I lived in the US. The beautiful thing about culture is that I think in a broad sense it is just as individual as everything esle the US. And you can take a little bit from here and a little bit from there, and always people who what to live or at least partake in one or more of the little pieces of culture that make up the overall culture of your life. So where does that leave me, now that I am more interested in creating culture, and less interested in changing the world. The world always changes but maybe culture sticks around. So maybe more or less the phrase should be engage the world, and change the culture, because in reality we can change people, and thats where change starts, change people, change the culture and maybe have an effect on the world.

haha, so where am I, oh somewhere between changing my culture and giving up and taking the easy road(become a doctor, find a wife, have family, live in the suburbs and call it good(not that there is anything wrong with this)). And I might be changing a few people here and there, because I do rub everyone, in one way or another, I am not the type of person who can get away with being invisible.

Blogs

I love reading blogs, everytime you read a blog at a minimum you learn something about the person writing. But sometimes I wonder is there really worth in learning small intimate details about people, people whom you may not have spoken with for years, people who you might speak with everyday. I do think life is about people, but I am just not quite sure what that means. Live today in the present, but live the in present within scope of eternity. Eternal purpose, daily purpose, what really is purpose. Living amoung a generation without religion, I get stuck asking that question way to often. I understand the beauty, simplicity and joy to befound in the small things in life. Money doesn't buy happiness, but is religous happiness just a veil for a deeper pain, a deeper struggle, an evolutionary struggle for life.
I appologize to anyone out there reading this, who is thinking I talked to Rob about this 8 years ago and he still hasnt gotten over the Marxist ideal that religion might just be an oppiate, or for those thinking that you have seen the arguements and are still head over heals in faith. Sometimes I think faith is like mariage, and then I utterly hope it is not. The first monthes, years, maybe decades are so simple, everything is new and exciting, but then all of the sudden that spark just is not quite there anymore, all of the sudden you realize, maybe emotion obscured you vission. Maybe this is as good as it gets.
At the young age of 23 I have had the opportunity to experience some of the most marvillous beauties of our world, I have lived a privledged life, never had a serious worry in my life, there have been "trials" but placed within the scope of the hurt I have also seen in the world I have been on a magic carpet ride long before Aladin ever stepped foot on his carpet.
Which brings me back to the question: Is this as good as it gets? And do I care if it gets better, because life is good, I have seen the status quo of my life in comparission with others, and selfishly or confidently or contently or mistakenly I am happy(those deceptive brain chemicals, I never see them coming).
The American ideal of progress which can either be argued was stolen from religion or stolen from Darwin, does not really impress me. For Darwin I am already too old, to be saved by evolution, and for Religion I am already saved. And this is the problem, I am easily satisfied, so the motivation to move past the point of being saved, if one can really ever move past that point, is well weak, and I have already given up on my evolution(if it has taken billion of years to get to me, then I will never witness the next step, the funny futile end of evolutionary thought, the quest to see something new, but the theory itself puts that chance, I think at a much lower level than the chances of their being a Creator). All of which may ultimately seem depressive and sadding, but with this realist perspective, I know I am happier than 85% and probably 98% of Americans, the only part that scares me is I am not sure I am happier that 50% of the people I have met outside of America who do not even start form a religous position of being saved or a belief in evolution(what do they believe in? nothing?).

And so I am stuck with two question: Are they really content, yes they want more, but are they okay with their status quo? and: Does it really matter, if their status quo (which I do think is more guilt free) might make me more sensuously happier, if I am already happy and content with my status quo? Is there anything ultimately more worthwhile than a continous feeling of contentment? If I claim to be content(which one might argue that just the fact I am claiming contentment, means I am not ultimately content) is it possible to be more conent?

Ciao.