Mat and John Conversations
Book: “On the Meaning of Life.” © 2010 Jaime Hinojos

Part I : Why we don’t talk about these things?

Mathew and John decided to get together to drink some tee and to talk about anything that would come to mind. Thus Matthew started the conversation:

M: Why many people don’t talk about things we don’t want to talk about?
J: What are those things we don’t want talk about Matthew?
M: The soul, the spirit, life before life, life after life, etc.
J: Some people might just consider useless, or futile to talk about those things.
M: Umm, looks like most people are content with the flow of their lives, but in reality they might not, who knows?
J: well, Mat, as you suggest, the coin of daily living has two faces: One is what we ordinarily see, and the other what we ordinarily don’t want to see or let others see. For example, let me ask you: When was the last time you visited a hospital?
M: Wait a minute! I don’t like hospitals. I hate them. In fact, I try to stay away from hospitals.
J: I see. You have strong feelings about hospitals. I wonder where are those strong feelings of yours are coming from. Perhaps those feelings are a clue on the things we do not want to talk about. Don’t you think it will be kind of interesting to unmask those and similar feelings?
M: Well John, I feel so about hospitals for what is in them: Ill people contaminated with all sorts of strange illnesses and infections, people about to die, and or people who were admitted because they suffered a terrible accident. In addition to people crying, depressed, desperate, anguished, smelly, etc… To me, it is just unbearable and depressing. Precisely, it all shows some aspects of the human condition.
J: We do need to talk about these things in order to talk about the things you pointed out people don’t want to talk about anymore.
M: Well, to me it’s just scary. I wish we didn’t have die. Why did God make us mortal?
J: Wait a minute friend. We have so many subjects. Why don’t we chose one, and perhaps we could ask our friends in the social networks like facebook, twitter, and bloggers, etc. to join the conversation. Although, I sense many of them will not be interested in discussing these subjects on the ultimate questions of human existence, here in the cloud. But who knows. Let us try anyhow. And yeah, granted, all things are related. So, when we talk about hospitals, jails, orphanages, hospices, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, and about what goes in those buildings, it all has to do with our fragile, passing, and precarious human condition.
M: I see now. It looks like we don’t want talking about our whole human reality. But rather, we concentrate on the things we feel comfortable with. The uncomfortable, we just avoid them. And yet, they happen to us, they affect us, they occur to us.
J: Well Mat, why bother to think or talk about illnesses, decay, or death if those things will just come to us uninvited… Why not to keep our selves under the influence of our own illusions, drinking, and diverting. 
M: But those things are good!
J: Indeed, they are. We all need recreation. We could not live without it. And we also need to enjoy what we do; but, they are the one side of the coin see and we talk about all the time…

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Blessings to All,
Padre Jaime Hinojos
Author of these dialogues