I've written previously about my findings in literature related to RP. I've come across another section in East of Eden that I think is inspirational, but perhaps better for /r/askmrp than the main sub.

Build up to this moment is a conversation that happened 10 years ago between the characters Adam, Samuel, and Lee (Adam's Chinese house man). The debated the merits of the Cain and Abel story. They debated why it was relevant. Why people focused on it.

Lee begins:

“Do you remember when you read us the sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis and we argued about them?...the story bit deeply into me and I went into it word for word...I compared the translations we have—and they were fairly close. There was...one place that bothered me. The King James version says... ‘If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.’ It was the thou shalt that struck me, because it was a promise that Cain would conquer sin.”

“Then I got a copy of the American Standard Bible...And it was different in this passage. It says, ‘Do thou rule over him.’ Now this is very different. This is not a promise, it is an order. And I began to stew about it. I wondered what the original word of the original writer had been that these very different translations could be made.”

Lee was perplexed by this. Thou shalt - a promise- versus Do thou - an order. He took this discrepency to his family elders. Now, Lee is not a Christian man, but he is a scholarly man. And he believes that any story that could be held dear by so many people is worthy of study. So he took this to his family elders for them to aid in his study. And they studied the original Hebrew, and they studied every Hebrew dictionary and translation they could find. And they involved local Rabbi's. And they debated this for two years.

Thou Shalt vs Do Thou. You will or You must. What did it really mean?

“After two years we felt that we could approach your sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis...The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’”

Now, there are many millions ...who feel the order, ‘Do thou,’ and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in ‘Thou shalt.’ Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But ‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.”

I find motivation in this. You can blame everything on predestination, that you have no control. If your life is shitty, it is surely everyone else's fault. You are a victim. You have no control. To me, both "Thou Shalt" and "Do Thou" represent people who feel no control over their lives. Their lives are that way because this is how it is and must be. It is either the rule they must follow, that their life is that of a victim, or it is futile to try to change it because it is destined to be that way.

However, to improve ones life, you must accept the truth.

Thou mayest

You can overcome ignorance. You can overcome adversary. You can overcome laziness. You can overcome that which drags you down. But it is work and you must choose to do it.

Edit: I want it to be clear that this is not a religious post.

I should have prefaced my post by saying the religious nature of the conversation is irrelevant to the main point.

Like the character Lee, I am not a religious man. However, I agree that a story that is held dear by so many people can still have value even if you do not agree with the divinity within.

The take away from the tale for me is that whether you considerate it God, karma, fate, destiny, the universe, or just plain life we can all find external elements to blame our failings on.

The lesson in this tale is that you have a choice in life. You may overcome your failings. You are not destined to fail. You're not destined to succeed. You do not have to succeed. You can fail. However the choice is yours. You can choose to put in the work. You can choose to except responsibility.

Red pill to me is learning, accepting, that there is a choice