I agree with the message here although I don't think the dilemma is as much
a personal need to "search for purpose" in life as it is a general dissatisfaction with the corporate culture of excessive wealth, mindless exploitation of resources, and indifference to humanity.
"Some people say" I should protest corporate greed and corruption by not shopping at Wal-Mart, but this is like the jaws of a shark - a new tooth springs up whenever one falls out. The people who work there would not be thankful if you put them out of work either. Besides, I love Wal-Mart. I will have more of an impact by simplifying so I don't need to work for a greedy corporation. RV here we come.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
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When the shark loses its tooth it is not replaced right away. When the new tooth does arrive, then we can renew our efforts to remove it.
What other option is there? To fall into the bottomless pit of nihilism? Why do anything? It's all useless.
“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”
Mahatma Gandhi
I agree: a search for purpose is a fools errand. There is no grand purpose behind the single spontaneous act of kindness, of that flash of understanding and affection, but there is value there and to call it less because there was none before and there may not be another to follow with some known arrival would be a sin of ingratitude.
Simplification is similarly misunderstood: what is music but the simplification of noise? What is a flower but the simplification of the vast field of blooms that blend to a lovely but indistint blanket of color?
If you have hunted, you have had a life given up to you, if you have planted and harvested, you have had a life given up to you, and you have taken that into yourself, you have offerred it to you child. We are distant from that sacredness along the rows of Walmart, but those same sacred strings of Lincoln still reach to that most distant point, still swell the chorus.
We cling to some perch while life sweeps past like some great river, we are buffetted, when we could let go, at least for a time, and float along, born effortlessly by the stream, carried by winds.
"Living the Good Life" by Scott and Helen Nearing is a a seminal document of how two very wonderful people did let go and prospered with work and music, friends and very full and long life.
The search for meaning is as empty as the question of who one is: ones definition and purpose exists in ones deeds: we are what we do, we are what we love.
Hey Jerry. Another beautiful post.
Hey thanks for adding "Maps in Depth" in your Links section as a connection to my blog. One of my more interesting mapping projects is at http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/PeaceMap.htm I think there some pretty convincing arguments that our current resolution settlement approaches are actually counter-productive. I'm proposing a radically creative approach: "Maps WithOUT Borders". Pass it on.
In short, the future will be made of a series of present moments. As the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has said,
“By taking good care of the present, we take good care of the future.”
Whatever we regularly contain in our daily actions is what we choose to contain in our lives.
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