It is a biological, sociological and historical fact that Man must aspire to something greater than himself. When one does not have a worthy endeavor, muscles atrophy, the spirit goes slack.
The gathering of early man for the purpose of survival, the grouping of a city-State, the Nation built around principals- having to overcome things such as differences of personal histories- working towards that worthy endeavor.
The Work. The Great Work.
So I sit here and wonder, how is it, knowing this, that I'm able to sit in the sun like I do, to loaf around as I do? How is it possible that I'm content with FEELING like I'm accomplishing something when I KNOW I'm not.
I'm a fan of good questions. Worthy questions. When answers come too quickly, they aren't often worthy. I've got to dig for it.
One of the most basic human problems. The paradox between wanting to FEEL well and wanting to BE well. Let's examine a related paradox to shed some light. "Change is the only constant" and yet we seem to gravitate (as a species) towards something to hang on to- some kind of constant we can lean on. A source of comfort.
How do we resolve this paradox? Become comfortable being uncomfortable.
Of course you can't actually do that, things that suck... well, they suck. That's why they call it that. The suck. Because it sucks. Get it?
I'm not going to write what I plan on doing.
I'll tell you when I've done it.
The great paradox, indeed. We do seem to gravitate towards a constant in our lives as often as we can. We could refer to this as "the comfort zone". It's probably a sort of survival mechanism... But at the same time, seeking the novel is also a survival mechanism. I think we are inherently lazy and thus the side of our evolutionary mechanism that says "stay put, stay safe" is allowed to run rampant because in today's culture we no longer need to survive in the conventional ways. We are the game changers. The tv watchers. The time wasters. The leash holders. The suck.
ReplyDeleteWe are human. And we don't know how to be sorry.