Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne is quite the optimistic guy! It sounds weird to say that an essay about death made me laugh, but I felt like I was watching an episode of "1000 Ways to Die". When he told the story of how his brother died from getting hit by a tennis ball, I caught myself midway in between a gasp and a giggle. Sounds terrible, I know. After reading this and watching the video in our short, short class period today about Montaigne, I think I can say with confidence that I would've been friends with Montaigne. He seemed like a guy that could carry on interesting conversation and have a great outlook on life. With all this being said though, I would have to say though that I do not agree with him on everything. Repentence is one. While I understand what he means by saying that everything that happens has purpose, it is still necessary, in my opinion, to repent for our actions- this being a religious thing. I, however, think that atonement is not necessary for repentence. I differentiate the two by atonement being between humans, i.e. I will make up for my actions against someone by doing good actions, whereas repentence is divine and occurs between human and God. It is not textbook fact, but it is how I see the two. I believe that everything happens for a reason; we all have a journey with bumps in the road along the way. These bumps aren't something we should regret, but something we should learn from. God wants us to live in the here and now, we can not become consumed by the past because it can not be changed, and we can dwell on the future because it is not something we can predict. We must make the best of what we have now, and try to live as justly as possible.
This quote by Fulton Ousler sums it up, "Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future.”