Roadmap of Evolution

There are different aspects of evolution of a person, such as, intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional, social, creative, and so on. I wonder how most people mature and evolve, I mean how specifically, and in what order at different stages of their lives.

I have thought that there is a typical order (although my life doesn't conform to the typical order). Physical development + intellectual development happen parallely from infancy to about twenties. And typically after that, there is development of bigger and better material and survival skills- which maps to climbing the career ladder, or buying your own house or car etc., and emotional development, to cope with girlfriends/boyfriends, ex dates, spouses, divorces, broken friendships, family ties and tensions. And then the stage from the mid life (crisis ?) to old age, where life takes a more spiritual turn, with a quest for more and more simplicity through the small yet meaningful things beyond the veil of mundaneness. (Actually this last leg can be quite different depending on the person - I guess there could be senile people who made a lot more sense when they were younger). But anyway, is this how everyone sees it and is this how people see themselves growing?

Personally for me it's been very very different. My spiritual quests and reasoning were at their peak in the teens. In my early twenties bulk of my energy went into physical development, when I worked out a lot and developed strength and stamina and worked my way into getting lean and mean. I also developed a lot of survival skills since I left home and the first couple of years after that were hard. Now most of my energy is spent on intellectual things, both left and right brain oriented, due to my fulltime job + part time degree, and my interest and consequently, time spent in the arts. So when I look at the path of my life since adolesence it's something like: spiritual -> [physical + emotional + social] -> intellectual. Of course all aspects of evolution are present in all stages of life but this map is based on the most *dominant* aspect, or the most significant aspect, at any particular stage.

Do people's life maps typically look quite different from the above? How do you see yourself evolve? What does your roadmap of evolution look like- the past and the future you envision? Would you have liked the roadmap so far to have been different and if so why? If not, why not?

I am really looking forward to reading your thoughts!

Senses and Intellect

What do you rate higher: senses or intellect? Or are they incomparable and both indispensable? Or is one more dependent on the other than the other is on it? Please don't mind that I may have brought up clichéd topics of empiricism and brain in a petri dish theories.

In addition, if you were forced to forgo one of your senses and you could choose which, then which one would it be and why, or is this impossible to answer :-) ? I mean let's say an evil alien leader came to you and said they were going to somehow take away one of your senses but that you could choose which one. Then what would your answer be?

I look forward to reading your views.

Forgiving

What is forgiving according to you? Is it possible for you to forgive? One of the many definitions for 'forgive' in the dictionary is "to cease the feeling of resentment". Is this always possible? And does forgiving mean that you also give up your judgement about a person?

Is it always good to forgive anybody for anything or do you make a decision on a case-by-case basis, some people being more worthy of being forgiven than yet others? And continuing this train of thought, is forgiving yourself usually harder or easier for you than forgiving others?

As per most (or may be all) religions forgiving is a virtue and God always forgives. Going by the definition of God, nothing can adversely affect God so why would He/She/It care either way? Isn't forgiving only applicable when someone is affected in some way? Does forgiving also mean that you don't punish the other person? In that case, why is it that religion talks both about an all-forgiving God and at the same time, going to hell for one's sins?

I would love to hear your take on this subject!

Immortality

We have heard often, on the one hand, the uncomfortable questions of the disillusioned: "What's the point of this life that is going to end one day?", "Why is life such an ephemera that confounds us?", etc., and on the other hand, fairy tales and mythological legends of certain blessed people who by their virtue and some good deed attain immortality.

My question is, would you want to live forever? Let us assume that there is some way for you to stay alive forever. I don't want to say too much here, lest it should bias the reader. The rest of the imagination is upto the reader... [And living forever, by definition means you live forever independent of other things, such as the life of the earth, or the availability of resources]. You can go as far as you want with your imagination. Potentially you could be continuously adapting to your environment as necessary, since without adaptation survival is not possible.

What is the picture you see when you imagine this? Do you like what you see...? Please do share.

Adoption

Would you adopt a child? If yes, what would the reasons be? Lately I have heard of many friends wanting to, and it's not because they do not want to have their own biological children or that they cannot, but they want to adopt kid(s) in addition to their own (biological) kid(s). Would you do this? If so, what would your motivation be? While adoption in and of itself is a great idea because it often gives abandoned children a chance for a better life, could adoption in cases where the parents also have their own biological children lead to more harm than good due to competitiveness between the adopted kid(s) and the biological kid(s)? Do you suppose that sibling rivalry in these cases could lead to bitterness and resentment that affect potentially both children's psychological and mental development?

On a related note, would your parenting of an adopted child be exactly the same as that of a biological child? Would there be any issues with parenting because of not being as intimately aware of an adopted child as you are of your own child? Since I am not a parent, at least yet, I may be clueless in some of these aspects. :)

Further, do you think there are any racial factors related to upbringing that could come in the way of effectively parenting a child of a different race? Is upbringing adaptive in a sense, so that parenting a child of one's own race is instinctively right by the process of evolution? What part of effective parenting in your opinion is instinctive and what part of it can come through educating oneself?

I would welcome your thoughts on any of the above, or related topics. Please do share what you think...

Vision

Cyber Diaries is meant to be a collection of thoughts of people from various walks of life, on various subjects. This has evolved out of my personal need to understand different ideologies and different ways of thinking, on different subjects.

There's a plethora of books with lofty thoughts of the quintessential elite. But what I hope to explore here is great ideas of "lay" people, and also interesting stories, dreams and epiphanies that you may have to share. After all, what good is a tale that you have not told the world? What good is an ideology that has not inspired a thought? What good is poetry and light that has not illuminated fellow men's consciousness?

These pages are dedicated to you. Please do share your thoughts. And please do tell people about this "club" so that they can share their thoughts as well.

I will post the first subject for discussion very soon.