Our Bizarre Society of Intelligent Animals

 

 Depiction of the Western society vs. Eastern society. Food for thought- especially when you consider pros and cons on each side.

Society completely baffles me.  Sometimes I sit back and just watch the world whir past.  Everyone has something so important to attend to.  People are in such a hurry: they drive like maniacs, knock their shoulders into strangers on the street, and leave themselves an anxious wreck.  I cannot seem to understand how we managed to get ourselves into such a hurry.

But it’s more than that.  We spend an amazing number of hours working (or let me clarify, AT work, not necessarily working) every week, we complain endlessly about our jobs, but yet when we arrive home and find emptiness within ourselves still.

What is missing?  Everyone has a theory, but I personally think the complexity of what is missing is perhaps beyond the current reach of the human imagination.  Sometimes when I am most honest with myself I can feel that what’s missing for me and the answer is somewhat surprising: a deep connection to nature.  It surprises me not because the answer is foreign to me, but because I would not guess that connecting with nature might be the answer to my own hole in my existence.  I do also think that what is missing in society as a whole is much more complex.  It would take 10 human lifetimes to even sort through one of the missing factors.  I believe that doing so would be a monumental waste of time.   As I tend to be a bit more negative about the future of mankind and our society as a whole. I believe we have become so utterly individualistic in nature, that we should continue trying to form bonds because it is gratifying for humans to do so, but also accept the fact that this is our society now.  I also believe that we have destroyed our earth well and truly and probably do not have a hope in the world of helping it recover, especially as human numbers continue to exponentially increase.  

That being said, I still believe that each one of us should do our best to live a meaningful life and search for a feeling of contentedness.  Perhaps this is the best possible means of living out our individual existences.   After all, we are simply extremely intelligent animals who have built this bizarre society for ourselves.  Perhaps the lack of an overarching mastermind was always going to be the demise of such an abnormally intelligent group of animals.  You could write a book about this topic, but for now I will leave it at that.  But I challenge you to challenge my ideas, as always.

Idleness is the Root of Mischief

Idleness is the root of mischief.... ooh that sounds fun!

Have you ever wished that you could quit your job and live a life of leisure?  If you are in the working world, isn't that the most ridiculous question in the world?  Of course you do!! Or do you?

First of all, let me start by saying I am laughing at myself daily on this exact topic.  I just got out of a job that was sometimes very busy and other times quite relaxed.  But I had this job straight out of college for the next 5 years.  That means the last 9 years of my life I have barely had a chance to breathe, let alone stop and think about what I truly want in my heart.  Sure I tried, but man I had things to do, people to see.  When I wanted to go on vacation, I was typically taking the red eye flight to maximize time at my destination and to minimize the amount of days I had to take off of work.  Does this sound familiar?

So now I moved to Australia from the United States.  I am jobless.  I left my job in June 2012.  It was a job I liked, I liked the people, I felt good about my mission and our accomplishments.  I was both happy and sad to leave.  I was excited for the future, but I knew leaving a good job was a huge decision.  Who does that? Especially in this day and age of the economies of the world!  To quickly answer that question, but continue to my point, I had to move because my husband is in Perth, Australia (where I live now) and he has a commitment to his current job. Two years apart is plenty thank you very much.

But my point is now that I am living my own daydream, quite literally, I am driving myself stir crazy searching for a good job: time now.  Literally, I live 5 minutes from the beach, walking distance!  So why am I so desperate to work?  Let's explore this.

I began to think about our Western world and what it means to work.  In this day and age, man or woman, work means our independence, supporting ourselves and our loved ones, and often it is part of our identity. Yes woman too. Plus we are such a materialistic world now.  I want to buck that trend more than anything, but I feel like it is nearly impossible to hide from the reality of the western world while I live in it.  And I do actually quite like the western world, so I suppose I will look for a balance as life goes on.  And I say the western world because Australia and the United States are incredibly similar in many ways- so now I must generalize since I am learning about more of this "western world" first hand.

Now back to materialism.  It is an obsession.  Why is it that we constantly want to move up in the world?  I see many good things in working hard and enjoying the money we earn. But have you ever considered how much you actually enjoy your possessions?  Or if you even have the time to enjoy them if you are working so hard.  I will be the first to admit I am in love with my expensive bikes.  I used to own cheaper bikes and when I could afford to upgrade it actually did make riding more enjoyable.  So fair enough, I am guilty.  But for me, I hope it can stop there.  Does it now? No.  Will it ever?  I hope so!

How did we end up living to work, instead of working to live?  Does it make us that happy that this is an acceptable solution? I think only you can answer that question.  However, I will say that our culture has changed drastically.  Idleness is no longer bliss.  Just ask someone who is retired!  They will tell you how blissful idleness is... That being said, for creative minds, it gives us time to grow.  Oh and did you feel left out when I said that?  You are not.  For we all have a creative side.  My point is, perhaps you love your job, perhaps your family is okay with the amount of time you spend at work, you are a lucky person if so.  But you must carve out time for everything, including, shock and horror, idleness.  It is so good for you!  Yes, I am sure too much can be bad for you.  And idleness walks a thin line with laziness on the other side.  But perhaps we have to tread this line more often in fear of losing our creativity, or worse, the work life balance that is all important.

But I leave you with this important thinking point.  Employers are now offering more time off than in the previous 5 years.  I asked a recruiting company why that was.  They said "because employees demand it."  So perhaps we are heading in the right direction.... can you imagine that?  I thought the media said we are going down the drain in every way possible? :)

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier.  Simply meant as a reminder of the beauty of nature.  Take a moment today to stop and look around.