y=mx+b

This post will be an adaptation of something that I wrote a year ago as a part of a journal that only ever contained three entries; this was the first.

Most people see the world as a structured system that flows consistently by the wind of hard-working, up-standing citizens who've spent their lives in rigid, unwavering dedication to whatever cause got them to where they ended up.  While this may be an accurate depiction of society, it creates a narrow-mindedness that limits the potential of an individual.  The average Joe refuses to humor the concepts of quantum physics or the delicate chess game of modern politics for all of the wrong reasons; he sees himself as unqualified or, I'm going to make up a word here, unqualifiable for such aspects the contemporary world.  What he doesn't realize is that all of the people who do involve themselves in the aforementioned practices are only able to because that's what they decided to do.  Basically, people tend to over-complicate things.  They see the little working parts of a system without acknowledging the predictable patterns and functions that govern each cog in the gearbox of the "big picture."

Let's take a few steps back and undress the familiar idea of basic algebra.  Where the average student finds himself throwing formula after formula at the page and reciting the silly properties of mathematical function, the more adept student understands that the entire class boils down to the idea that every line has a name, and that name is y=mx+b, the equation for the slope of a line.  I'm not saying you can pass Algebra without memorizing your properties or learning how to use the quadratic formula, but all of that stuff is just the icing on the Algebra cake.  Of course, my point isn't to simplify Algebra; it's to show that the world is just a math problem, and, fortunately for you, many of the variables cancel.

The equation of the world is not a simple one, like the equation of a line.  The world's problem has infinitely many variables raised to innumerable powers locked away in layer after layer of parenthesis and mathematical operations, but, like I said before, many of the variables take care of each other and make the equation easier to work with.  Food is processed, bagged, and shelved.  Clean water flows from the tap at the turn of a handle.  Even those out of work and money can find refuge in a homeless shelter.  All the rest is luxury, and everything is at your fingertips.  If you need to know something, type it into a computer.  If you need to build something, buy the materials from a store and get to work.  If you want to study something, enroll at a college, and bury your face in a book.  There are countless ways to easily access any highway to the destination at which you wish to arrive, and claiming your own incompetence is nothing short of giving up, only you haven't even tried, yet.

Obviously, we can't do anything we want to; I'm probably never going to grow wings and fly, but if I want to see the world from the clouds, I could always purchase a plane ticket.  Today, there is little that we can't achieve, it's just a matter of plugging the numbers you want into the variables you control.