The Enigma of Self

At this stage of my life, I have lost many dear friends and relatives.  Such occurrences naturally bring the reality and inevitability of death in sharp focus.  In my mind, this is necessarily a good thing for it is a sobering reminder how fragile and ephemeral life is.  It is a fleeting experience that deserves my full attention.

We are hapless creatures navigating this world of humans upon this most remarkable planet.  We also spend a good deal of our lives, regrettably, operating within an imagined belief in an ordered world and universe.  In fact, much of what we conceive of as representative of reality is in fact a product of the collective human endeavor to create an environment that provides some modicum of security and predictability that is many ways, delusional.

 

Take for example, the role that money and consumerism plays in our lives.  Money is a contrivance; it is inherently worthless; or, rather worth the paper and ink that was used in its manufacture.  Yet money and the wealth it engenders in modern human society, appears to be everything.  Its acquisition; its possession; its utility determines, in many ways, the quality of life or at least that quality of existence that is perceived to be beneficial.  In fact, its true value is minuscule; for, money is not inherently satisfying.

 

The pursuit of wealth is a significant distraction from a true connection with each other and our natural environment.  We are, after all, creatures of this earth; of the soil; of the air and wind; of the stars and the greater universe.  The rest is contrivance – imaginative, creative and alluring as it may, it is, nonetheless, a derivative of the hapless human search for order and significance.  The reality is that we live moment to moment and the forward movement of time ultimately leads to its inevitable conclusion – the final termination of individual consciousness.

   

We might speculate about the relative importance of the quality of life that we experience as compared to those around us, and derive some kind of satisfaction regarding our own perceived worth, yet in relation to the cosmic forces that drive the universe, it is all quite irrelevant.  Simply stated, A life is a life that requires no justification or explanation.

It is the individual continuum of choices in a lifetime that either grounds us to the reality of our own existence; or, effectively alienates us from all that is meaningful.  Regardless of the path we choose; however, we are all destined to join in the joy molecular and ultimately released from self.