Recently I’ve started to play piano and have found myself obsessed with the patterns of music. It feels so natural and reminded me of other times in life when I feel a similar sense of beauty. I’ve read some works of ancient philosophers pointing out the mathematics of music, and although I don’t fully understand the formulas, it seems obvious to me that often times there are inherent patterns of beauty all around us. They are those things that give us stillness, calmness and peace, however brief those feelings might be at the time.
Although I’m optimistic about the changes brought about by technology, at times I wonder what we are sacrificing. The other day I stopped by an old bookstore and got lost for a while looking through the titles. I couldn’t help but think about how different that experience was from my usual method of picking books through Amazon. In the bookstore there was a very raw and natural flow to my selection. I browsed both the books in the store and my own mind for the type of knowledge I was seeking at that very moment. Being surrounded by old books gave me a feeling of nostalgia and took me back to a more simple time. I was lost and happy and exploring. The automation of our lives leaves us more time, but too often we fill that with more automation and forget what it’s like to enjoy the simple experience of something. Those experiences are becoming more and more rare.
If you haven’t found your calling, and believe it’s possible, working a 9-5 can be a big challenge. It almost seems to numb you in many ways. I’ve found that it becomes hard to really feel. Feeling is what reminds you that you are living. It’s hard to feel if you haven’t resolved certain inner issues, but feeling is like being in the zone of life. It’s an unbelievable place to go, and very challenging to get there. I’ve found that to get in this zone I often need the help of creative spirits. Great songs, or great pieces of literature often help me to get to this place, especially on those days where motivation is more challenging. It’s interesting to think about the role these types of creators play in life and what it means to feel in today’s world.
It’s so easy to go through life without being truly awake and aware. Often times I catch myself after a long period of being on autopilot and am quite taken aback. Getting lost in the mundane can drag on for years. As important as just being in the moment, is making a conscious effort to think about what you would like your life’s work to be. It’s ok, and maybe even crucial to be deeply inspired, and to really “feel” on a consistent basis. These feelings might lead to a breakthrough.
Meaning & purpose (MP) haven’t been part of the human pursuit in the past, but it seems to be more pronounced than ever. I’ve avoided accepting these concepts for a while because of their “fluffy” nature. For example, it seems trivial to talk about finding MP when there is so much great suffering all around us. However, if I’ve learned anything while on the pursuit of MP, it’s that it is really hard to find. Attempting to live a purposeful life has led to much more failure and disappointment than success. It seems that those who are truly dedicated to the pursuit, eventually make things around them much better, and their work reverberates far and wide. At least to me, it seems the only way to hope for a better world is to try and make it that way- and those seeking to find MP are on the front lines of that battle.
One of my biggest challenges throughout my life has been putting my deep passion and curiosity into action. Often times I have found myself fascinated with a subject, going to amazing places in my head, only to come back down to the all too palpable drudgery of everyday life. For some reason I have felt insecure in my thoughts, going as far as to believe I don’t deserve to think about these powerful ideas. As if the pondering of big ideas is only reserved for the immovable scientist philosophers like Plato and Descartes.
I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling there are many others like myself that ponder big questions. I think that the frequency is rising, especially among, but not limited to the millennial generation. A confluence of complex factors have molded us into beings charged with a new type of energy and thought. We care about the world in a way past generations haven’t, simply because it seems to have become smaller as we’ve grown.
The core of our being is going to be an increasingly important focus. As we reject traditional constructs while dealing with the growing complexities of today’s world, we are left with an emptiness inside. Call it a soul, call it destiny, call it spirituality, but we all feel it and are searching to fill it. Our current structures don’t teach us how to properly fill the core, and those that find ways to fill the void will be hugely influential.
There is often celebration when a person in particularly creative and seemingly different. Our society loves the type that goes against the grain and changes the world. It’s the person that doesn’t care what society thinks, and perseveres to greatness. They are definitely deserving of this praise as it takes guts and a lot of grit to continually do things differently. There are no signs or directions on the road less traveled, and because of this it takes tremendous courage to get through some of more obscure parts of the journey.
It is interesting that we can go years without really getting to know the people closest to us. A typical conversation with Grandma or Grandpa usually involves surface level topics. Sure, you might share information about work or family, but deeper conversations rarely happen. We might know their history as it exists within the context of our own lives, but it becomes much more difficult to understand life from their unique frame. Extracting information about what life was like during WWII might give us historical perspective as well as a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by our relatives. Asking what it was like struggling to assimilate in a new country with no father might reveal even more about why we are the way we are. The fabric of our identity was formed with each wave of relatives, and understanding the complexities of their existence might help us gain a deeper understanding of both our internal (psychological) and external (sociological) worlds. Finding objective truth is near impossible, but there do exist purer forms of truth. Part of uncovering the “truth” of our lives and existence is understanding where we come from.
