I was watching a movie today on TV and there was this commercial about great weekend getaways on islands or something. I thought, "Wow, how lovely if i had an island of my own." Strange how mundane this thought actually is. Surely everyone will want an island to themselves. But there really aren't islands for all of us. What then? Do we dismiss this want as a lofty dream that can only be an abstraction and can never turn into reality? Why? I really want an island. I want to dig up sand castles and put little flags on them and build a home for my people to live a-happily. It seems much more important than having a job and earning money. Of course, earning money is a given since noone in my family owns an island and even if someone did, it wouldn't be a part of my legacy. So i'd have to have money to buy an island. But then, in the end, if i had that money, my childhood ambition of visiting all the countries in the world would need funding, and then i'd have to earn more money sitting on my new island.
I'm going wayward; my point is this: what happens to the dreams and aspirations of humans, both lofty and otherwise? Do they, in some weird way, serve as a reason for existence? Some people i know would say, "No, that's responsibility. You exist because you have to fulfil your responsibilities and obligations." Whatever.
I'm going wayward again, but more purposefully so. The thing is that there is not enough resources on this planet to fulfil our aspirations. I'm sure someone will disagree saying, "Hey, all i really want is X or Y or S(p) to be happy. I don't need the earth's resources to fulfil that!" But still, if we take a majority, it really is difficult to satisfy everyone's dreams. And then, our dreams keep changing and morphing and growing all the time. What of those? And then what about the things that we need? Clean air, broader roads with lesser potholes, more schools, cheaper access to air travel, etcetera, those are essential and their absence infuriates us and makes us want them and thus add them to our wish list. So with this growing list of wants on the one hand and the inability of the Earth, Nature, Technology, Fate, God, whatever to fulfil it all on the other, we have a pair of weary hands far apart. I'd prolly pause to admire the wide shoulders of this huge being, which, i assume to be a human male, but that would be going wayward for the third time.
Having now explained the situation in detail, my next exploration is in the direction of the theory of action to take in such a scenario. What dyou do when you want something?
A. You start working towards it diligently from Day 0,
B. You want something else 30 minutes later and are confused
C. You remind yourself that you have responsibilities on your shoulder,
D. You achieve it with ease, and plan your next item on the wish list.
The ideal action would be D. But none of us is perfect. So how do we do this? I mean, if this is the purpose of living, we have simply got to do something, right?
Yeah, there are things that we can do. Like wanting simpler things and not always building castles in the air, staying focused on one goal at a time, etcetera. By the way, what i'm actually doing here is simply talking to myself. There is not much take-away material here for a reader. You're simply witnessing the introspections of a confused person being essayed here.
At the end of it, I recollect some thoughts from friends on this subject, such as this: The mind is usually wanting things, and the man becomes a servant of the mind. He must, instead, concentrate on being content, selfless and temperate. That's not really possible by everybody. That kind of philosophy may be applied as i border on senior citizenship. It really is the purpose of life: WHAT I WANT. Unnerving? So true!
