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What is good? What is beautiful? Is it universal? Or is it relative to the beholder?

I have been given a lot of advice from concerned associates. I believe they are trying to do good. But the good they are doing creates pressure. It makes me ask questions of myself: am I trying hard enough? Have I overlooked something? Am I beyond redemption? I think those are mostly constructive questions, but I do not think most people know how every amount of spare energy I have is already devoted to finding those answers.

People want to fix me. They want there to be an easy solution. So do I. I have been focusing on the word “hope” for the last while. I can get on board with the principle of hope.

Prayer could help me, reading scriptures could help me, attending the temple could help me, bearing testimony, getting priesthood blessings, serving others, focusing on the things I know, keeping my covenants, following principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, fasting, attending my church meetings could help me. I have hope that centering my family around principles that I feel have served me well in my life is worthwhile. I hope that I will see my dad again. I hope that no matter how lost I may feel that there might still be something to find. Maybe those things will help me feel the spirit again. Maybe they will make me feel justified in my efforts. I hope they will bring the faith or confidence that my hope is in the right place. I hope that I can discern that they are true.

These days I feel like I have a new brain and new eyes and everything is unfamiliar. I feel like I am an infant in this world. Everything I have known seems to be floating away, like dandelion clocks floating in the breeze. It seems so easy to retrieve them before they are gone forever. Just as I reach my hands out to grab one they are whooshed away by my act of trying to grasp them. At times it seems like I catch the feathery orbs, only to find that I have crushed them.

My hope lies in my desire for there to be a truth to find. One to be loyal to and to strive for. So what is good? What is beauty? Does it end at that? Is it unique from person to person? Or is there a unknown spiritual element that ultimately guides us to good, to beauty, to the Truth. That is what I am hoping for. I do not know if I can find it. But how can I have faith if I don’t discern Truth?

A little light seems to be creeping back into my life. When the sun rises earlier and earlier in the mornings and shines bright during the day it gets under my skin and I feel more hopeful. I feel like I could believe again in a God. I can imagine something bigger than this world, orchestrating its grandeur. Perhaps it is because spring feels a little like magic and in the past I have attributed that magic to deity. Then again, maybe it is because I take a white happy pill everyday after being forgetful the few weeks before.

Last night during family scriptures we read Moroni 7 in the Book of Mormon. In my youth that chapter contained what unlocked my understanding of how the spirit spoke to me. Paraphrased: Everything good or enticeth to do good is of Christ everything that leads away from good is of the devil. I forgot that I was left to my own judgment of what was good or bad my whole life. I have always struggled to discern the Spirit in my life. Those scriptures helped me take responsibility for what came into my life regardless of my feeling deaf to the Spirit.

My means for spiritual guidance really hasn’t changed. I still ponder something over and choose what I think leads to the greater good based on principals of growth, kindness, love and hope for a brighter day. But now I lack confidence. I doubt my judgment. I doubt my wisdom. I doubt my purpose. I doubt the brighter day exists.

I am surprised at how easy it is to carry on the same as before. I still use the same gauge for my decisions. I am doing all of the same things I did before when I believed they would strengthen me, heal me, edify me and do the same for those around me. I still believe that the results of the life I have lived and the decisions I have made have been basically good. But the why is different now.

I still live my former beliefs because I think they elicited more help than harm (not the most rave review). I do it because it surrounds me with a supportive community that wants the sames things I do. I live it because I feel the principles taught lead to greater character, success and happiness. I teach it to my children for the same reasons. I strive for it because it promises the things that I long for and hope for. I fight for it because, if it is true, it is worth the fight.

Actually, I guess the why is still about the same. The one difference is that my reasons for continuing on deal more with the present rather than fueling my understanding of life’s purpose or as a means to bring me to the brighter day after my mortal life. It has morphed the gospel into something good for the here and now instead of from the beginning to the end–because I don’t know what that means anymore.

I liked Jason Statham’s hyper-competent character in The Transporter. A character like that would have to exercise more than the average amount of discipline. Life would consist of months of routine preparation punctuated by high-speed chases. During those boring months, it would be necessary to avoid attracting any attention. In particular, a successful transporter would have to obey traffic laws fastidiously, even though he is driving a car capable of torpedoing the speed limit. Any unnecessary risk would jeopardize his entire career.

So the best way to drive like a transporter is to observe the speed limit. You can tell yourself that you’re driving like an action hero would–an action hero who is lying low. You’re showing that you’ve got the extra discipline it takes to perform at that level.

My wife and I used to be in the habit of driving exactly the speed limit, without exceeding it by even a fraction. We used to say that we were being superheros. The irony was fun for us.

I kept it up awhile because it turns out that I like the feeling of obeying the speed limit. There is real peace in knowing that you don’t have to be on the lookout for a cop.