Essays
Essays are sometimes considered a necessary evil in the literary world, especially to those going to school to better their craft. They tend to be considered an outdated mode of literary communication, something only with which professors taunt and torment their underlings.
However, essays can be very meaningful. They can be a way of communicating ideas in a less romaticized fashion that poetry and a less fictionalized way than short stories. So it is to this literary art for that this page is dedicated.
All essays showcased on the Cafe Mindworks site are original, inspired and remain the sole property of the author(s) being used herein with their permission.
Feel free to let us know what you think. Or better yet, why not submit your own essays to the Crew to be showcased here.
~~~The Cafe Mindworks Crew~~~
| On Life | On Shakespeare |
ON LIFE
To dwell on this subject for any length of time
would tend to drive a man insane.
So many concepts are bound up in the vastness of this single word.
Life...what meaning does it hold for you?
For many people life is working hard and long
and usually ending up with less than they began with.
For others, life is a continual battle
against sickness and disease
and the poverty which usually accompanies both.
Then, however, there are those who view this word
as a way of describing their being on this planet
and drifting aimlessly through space and time,
never really knowing or caring
where they are coming from or going to.
Old Mr. Webster, in his most famous of books,
describes life as "that property of plants and animals
which makes it possible for them to take in food,
get energy from it, grow, adapt to their surroundings,
and reproduce their kind."
But this explanation is not the meaning life holds for me.
Life is the continuing process
which began long before I was born
and will, in all probability,
continue long after I am gone.
The course it sets is uncertain.
It could build a man up so high
that he could conceive in his mind
that he is better than life itself.
Just as easily life could tear a man down so low
that he could begin to believe himself a servant
to life as well as those around him.
Life is everything good in our world,
everything that we hold dear,
everything precious.
Life is newborn babies
and flowers and trees.
Life is animals and fish and insects.
Life is the sky above and the earth below,
the sun at noontime and the moon at midnight.
Life is having fun and falling in love.
Life...whether or not we may like to believe it,
is the evil in our world also.
Evil has been described as
"anything morally wrong or bad; wickedness; depravity; sin."
I describe evil as being something created by life
when man begins to think himself a ruler over life.
Evil was created to keep man occupied.
Battling evil would keep man's mind busy,
therefore, he would have no time to discover the secrets life holds,
and exalt himself above life.
Who are we to say when a person should be born
...or when he should die?
It is for life to say.
The choice is not ours.
It is for life to choose.
Life is a great gift, supreme among all gifts.
It is not given for exploitation!
We are given life to make the best out of it.
Life is ours to use, not misuse.
We should help each other make the most
of the talents which have been given to us.
We should not ridicule others,
for everyone has some special gift,
sometimes it is just a little harder to find.
Every day we are given privileges.
Life is our greatest privilege.
It is not to be wasted.
ON SHAKESPEARE
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