[A quick addendum concerning semantics: Don't worry about word variance-of-use; instead, study the concepts that a term represents. Know this concept to the fullness of your ability, and then the representative word will be yours to use to full effect.]
I apologize in advance if I am stepping into a thread where I'm not supposed to/not wanted, but a lengthy scan of your thread reminds me of a story:
There once was a butterfly so intent on not missing a single flower that they flew like with warped speed from taste to taste, pausing only long enough to feel they had sampled the goods, all the while wondering what would be next. In the end, this butterfly went so fast it neither could benefit from the nectar nor remember its original purpose.
Anything might be said or thought about forgiveness, but that only becomes meaningful when connected into the larger picture of benevolent growth and how that actually functions in the collective-human psyche (all else are memes, as the modern culture might say). So consider carefully what this means: there *is* no vacuum, only interconnections in our life.
Ah, but do you intend to be functional/helpful to that future, or simply a self-serving "I told you so" or a self-sacrificing "whatever you do, don't be like me"? Heh, even playing-acting the mad prophet, even in satire, means more when the dots are connected.Mayday. Mayday. Calling in Heathrow airport control tower. Multiple countries beset by gun crimes and threats of nuclear war in Ukraine. My blog is like a black box for future generations to discover the fatal decisions made by society before a catastrophe! I remember as a young child having a dream in which I was sliding down a metal beam of the twin towers on 9/11 as if it were a slide.
Ah, but do you intend to be functional/helpful to that future, or simply a self-serving "I told you so" or a self-sacrificing "whatever you do, don't be like me"? Heh, even playing-acting the mad prophet, even in satire, means more when the dots are connected.
Oh Michael, how I know about opt-outs! It is always a challenge to view the poorly woven world without bitterness (or righteous indignation). Yet for the truly meaningful/purposeful/driven, it's worth trying to work beyond that--to find the reasons for work-arounds rather than opt-outs. I wish you the best. (The right-placed spirit with the nurtured-educated perspective *can* find the right dreams-as-guides to answers so rarely understood; your choice might then become whether or not to bring the insights into relevance.)