To Gain The World

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
Mark 8:36

by Chuck Ness

I brought my tomato plants inside the house about a Month ago to allow the tomatoes that were still on the plants to mature instead of letting the plants die in the cold. A Month later one plant has mostly died, but there is still one the last tomato that is almost ready to harvest. As you can see, the other plant is still hanging in there and even has some new tomatoes growing.

Now while the plants themselves are wilting away with every day that passes by, you will notice how the plants send all there energy to the tomatoes so their seeds could survive, even though that ensures the plant itself would die sooner. 

Sadly, humans are not so wise. Unlike plants and animals, we humans destroy our seeds so that we, not our children, will survive. Instead of ensuring the propagation of our kind, humans will often times sacrifice our future generations so that we can have more for ourselves.

After all it costs money and time to raise a child, and in doing so we must sacrifice things we would otherwise enjoy. This is why we humans will often times sacrifice our children to the god of self, so that we can enjoy the benefits a care free life might offer us. Benefits we would otherwise not enjoy if we are encumbered with the responsibility of a child.

Taking Responsibility Instead Of Pointing Fingers

Funnyman Adam Carolla is known for two things: hilarious rants about things that drive him crazy and personal stories about everything from his hardscrabble childhood to his slacker friends to the hypocrisy of Hollywood. He started broke and blue collar and has now been on the Hollywood scene for over fifteen years, yet he never lost his underdog demeanor. He's still connected to the working class guy he once was, and delivers a raw and edgy, fish-out-of-water take on the world he lives in (but mostly disagrees with), telling all the stories, no matter who he offends—family, friends or the famous.

Adam made the following video for Prager University. In it he explains how we can all change ourselves for the better by internalizing things. If we can learn from our mistakes instead of blaming everyone else, we can in essence change the direction of our future. By doing so, maybe we will leave the world a better place when we are gone than it was before we arrived.


When you think about it, we all only have but so many years to to live. The things we accomplish, whether they be good or bad, will all be summed up one day with a dash between the day we were born and the day we died. What we do in that dash depends more upon how we perceive the world than how the world perceives us. Even more importantly, the way the world looks at the life we lived is completely dependent upon how we lived that life while we were in it.

Taking Responsibility Instead Of Pointing Fingers

Funnyman Adam Carolla is known for two things: hilarious rants about things that drive him crazy and personal stories about everything from his hardscrabble childhood to his slacker friends to the hypocrisy of Hollywood. He started broke and blue collar and has now been on the Hollywood scene for over fifteen years, yet he never lost his underdog demeanor. He's still connected to the working class guy he once was, and delivers a raw and edgy, fish-out-of-water take on the world he lives in (but mostly disagrees with), telling all the stories, no matter who he offends—family, friends or the famous.

Adam made the following video for Prager University. In it he explains how we can all change ourselves for the better by internalizing things. If we can learn from our mistakes instead of blaming everyone else, we can in essence change the direction of our future. By doing so, maybe we will leave the world a better place when we are gone than it was before we arrived.