Yeah, I thought it was pretty good myself.

But I suspect you really don't grok what I'm getting at.
Look at this metaphor, or analogy, or simile, or model...???

Say you are a golf champion, like Tiger Woods. Golf is very important to you. It is your living, your livelihood, your passion, your hobby. You have devoted an enormous amount of effort and study to your game. The game, particularly winning it, is very important to you, and very real. It is not a silly little game for old guys, it is not a pointless waste of time, it is not a rich man's pastime, it is not a symbol of the leisure class. To you, winning or losing really does matter. It matters more than anything.

For you, golf is everything, your career, your self-respect, your means of self-actualization, your reputation, your self-image. You love the game, you study its subtleties, honor its institutions, are up-to-date on all its history and progress and issues. And you really enjoy playing the game. It fills you with satisfaction and pride. Golf is the center of your universe. It IS your universe.

To me, and to a lot of people, golf means nothing. Does that mean I'm right? Or wrong? No, it simply is not part of my reality. I have chosen not to make it so. Your devotion and obsession with the game is perfectly legitimate and real for you, as is my indifference to it. For a golf champion, golf is very real, for me, it is a pleasant but expensive walk in the park. I make no value judgements either way, it is simply the difference in how my and your universe is defined. How we have chosen to define our universes.

I'm not saying I can will myself into being a golf champion. That I can use some kind of magic or psychic power into guiding the ball to the cup. I'm saying I can will myself to really care about the game or not. And both my universe and yours are very different, because of all the choices we've made.

That is the power of consciousness. It allows us to build the kind of universe we want to live in, BY MAKING CHOICES! It does not guarantee we will be happy or successful in it. But we are not helpless.

And if you don’t understand this, viscerally, you haven’t got a fucking clue as to what is really going on.