Letter From the Editor

There are schools of thought and religious philosophies out there which teach that the nature and purpose of life is to suffer. Some ideologies instruct this, and suggest that to have fun, to be proud of oneself, or to strive to achieve great things, is actually a wrong thing to do. If one believes that, they better go get deprogrammed fast, or they might as well put themselves out of their misery now.

Others believe that only their religion or their god has the answer to escaping pain, and if you don’t sign up and do as they say –not usually as they do – then you’re done for. They may look down their nose at you, or even tell you that you are going to be punished after death for all of eternity if you don’t get on board. Big money doesn’t hurt their salvation plan for you either.

And, some believe that the solution to balance and success is taking pharmaceutical drugs to change ones thoughts and feelings. Like some of the religions and philosophies that preach it is ones duty to suffer, these legalized drug pushers suggest that the human mind and will is so weak and deranged, that one needs the temporary or permanent crutch of a drug ingested in to the bloodstream, that, according to their own often hidden definitions, may cause more problems than they allege to cure.

Yet,there are some in society that refuse to be victim to defeatist, soul sucking ideologies, and that avoid numbing their brain in order to–as one musician I once knew put it– “take drugs because he cannot handle his own mind.”




Those people that believe that we are here to suffer inevitably make everyone else around them suffer too, so one is better off steering clear of them so one isn't dragged down with them. Sure life can be problematic, but so what? Anything worth doing can have challenges. Your life may have been horrible for a large part of it, or maybe it is now, but it doesn’t have to be. Life is not by nature miserable, but the people who try to convince you that it is are. Life ‘is’ what you make it.

There are not enough people or groups out there that promote sanity, peace, and prosperity, but there are some, and you owe it to yourself to find and create a great life for yourself with those people.

Question what you have been taught, and if sounds as if it could be wrong, question it some more until you find the right answer. And if someone tells you that you need to suffer more, deny your true will (so long as you are not hurting yourself or another), or take some pills to feel better, you can generally be sure they’re wrong. If one is not happy in life, then there is not much point to living it, and happiness starts from within- not in a building, a book, or a bottle.

The faster we get rid of the sadistic, miserable people, places, and things in our lives, and replace them with loving, successful, happy realities, the quicker we’ll find happiness, and a life truly worth living.


-Bruce Edwin

The Hollywood Sentinel, © 2010.