Whenever I dip my head back in to check on current events or when I find out about some new mandate or law, I can't help but ask the question: What are we doing here?
Before we succumb to living in fear or mandating how others should live their lives, we should be asking ourselves - what are we doing here? What are we doing to each other? What are we doing to our selves? Which leads me to the existential version of the question: What are we, these strange creatures called humans, doing here, in the planet, in this universe?
What are we doing when we live a life based on fear? What are we doing when we tell others how they should live their lives? What are we doing when we rely on others to keep us safe? What are we doing when we abdicate personal responsibility? What are we doing when we give up our liberty? What are we doing when we shout down ideas and people who scare us? What are we doing when we stop seeing others as individuals, when we stop seeing ourselves in the people around us? What are we doing when we teach our children to be afraid, when their developing mind is being shielded from the faces of those who are supposed to teach them, mentor them, and show them the world? What are we doing to our bodies when close off a part of our system? What are we doing when we deem certain sectors of our society not essential? What are we doing when we tell our elders that they cannot care for themselves? What are we doing when we stop holding our governments, our media, our companies responsible? What are we doing, giving our power to the highest bidder? What are we doing destroying the already tenuous social support system? What are we doing entrusting our health to those with no liability if they screw up? What are we doing to our minds as we soak our brains in fear and hatred?
Just what on earth are we doing?
What are we doing here?
I am here to learn. To grow. To teach. To coach. To heal. And ultimately, to transcend. I don't know with which religion my faith most closely lies, but I grew up Christian, I am a libertarian, and I don't think consciousness ends with my body.
I am here to learn the truth and to live in truth to the best of my ability. To grow in as many directions as I can. To push the limits of my potential. To teach others what I have learned, starting with my children. To coach others in pursuing their own path. To heal. To be an open source of peace and love and to share it and show it to the best of my ability.
I am here to pursue all of those things because... Well, I'm not exactly sure why. But I think it has something to do with being a part of the humanity that fights for the good, for truth, and for the betterment of all. And I think it has something to do with uncovering Truth, which is related to God? It's the highest purpose that I can aim at, I know that. And I know that having that high aim has not only served me in the short run, but has started an ever unfolding avalanche of ... goodness? ... love? ... healing? ... in my life and in those around me.
Living in a state of fear is counter to everything I am here to do. Fear does not breed love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and temperance. It feeds the dark wolf. It saps courage. It stymies creativity. It pushes hope into a corner.
I refuse to live in fear. I have fear. I feel fear, everyday. But that is not where I choose to act from.
Mandating, forcing, coercing, scaring, threatening, conniving, others to live the way I want them to live, whether it be for my sake or for theirs, is counter to everything I am here to do.
Life has risk. That's never changed. It has always been true. It will always be true. If anyone compels you to believe otherwise, turn away.
Along the same lines, we have not, nor will we ever, been able to control the outcomes of our lives. When it comes to evaluating our lives, it is not by outcome alone that we should judge our lives, but the means that we use to attain our intended ends.
How should we judge this period in our society? We have not controlled the outcome. Our intention may have been noble, but what about the means? And what about the ends that have been achieved by those means? We cannot claim ignorance. There have been, and continue to be, many people warning us to go back, to slow down, to stop, think, look, learn, before we continue on.
I feel like I'm speaking in biblical terms, but that's the gravity with which I hold this time period. We are on a bullet train to destruction, with no care for the welfare of those around us as exhibited by our not just willingness, but ravenous desire, to ignore the truth, to ignore questions, to ignore the fact that we might have been wrong.
So, what are you going to do now?
