(A reflection of Robin’s and Sharon’s blog’s latest chapter)

I’m an agnostic atheist myself, so I know the pain of not having a spiritual figure in hard times. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a belief. In fact, my belief has been described as stone-wall strong by some of my devout Christian friends, so I think that means something.

Science and humanity is a big part of this belief system. Instead of believing in a deity, I keep my faith in the people around me and the living beings of this planet. Dean Koontz said it best when he’s quoted, “Civilization rests on the fact that most people do the right thing most of the time.”

For every bad thing that happens, three others will do good, and I put my trust in that. Any act of good I read, see or hear about reinforced me. But at the same time, any act on the opposite spectrum pulls me down. So I guess, in a way, I’ve placed my life in the belief that there are things in this world worth fighting for.

One of my past depressed period coincided with 9/11, which pretty much was one of the most tragic accident and inhumane act of mass murder of our time. Needless to say, on the day the news broke, I contemplated suicide. The days following that though, the international support and actions for the victims and their families were so uplifting, I basically walked out of that depressed period altogether.

Recently, I also recounted a story of how during one of the rainy season here, the wind got so strong that when it changed directions, millions of rain droplets stopped moving and floated in midair for a split second, right outside the window of my room on the 14th floor of our flat. It was the most beautiful act of nature I have ever seen and it reinforced my belief that there are still things worth seeing in this world.

I think a belief system is like a personal anchor. Yes, our friends and family can tie us down to the world outside, but within ourselves, we need something to hold us together. A dream, an idea, a religion or a philosophy, it doesn’t matter which. This is also a main reason why I continue to write stories. It’s me, putting in hopes that one day, someone will read one of my works and find their anchor in something from it. Cause really, when you think about, a belief is just a fictional concept we try to make real. So in the end, our belief to these concepts are our internal anchor to a reality yet to happen. A dream. An idea. A religion. Or my stupid philosophy that there are things in this world worth fighting for. They are also known as the future.

And nothing is worth fighting for more than the future.