This morning I was paging through my little black book – yes, it is little and it is black. During the past thirteen years or so I have filled a number of these with brief quotes, noodles, and reflections. Early on in my perusing I came upon the following: The Fundamental Questions of Existence. If you, gentle reader, have been following my blog entries these past months you have read some entries that focused on what I call Essential Life Questions; what follows is a focus upon just four of these – the one’s that I continue to believe are ‘fundamental questions of existence.’ [NOTE: this entry ended up being longer than I had intended so I have divided it into two parts, PART II will follow tomorrow]
Who are we? This is a question of identity. This contains questions of the past – What are the choices I have made that have significantly contributed to me being the person I am today? I make choices when I am awake, aware and intentional and purposeful – when I am response-able; I also make choices when I am asleep, when I am not aware and when I am not being intentional an purposeful – when I am react-full. This also contains questions of the present – What are the choices I am making today (say, going back six to twelve months) that directly impact me and others? Which are the ones that might well indirectly impact me and others? What are the intended consequences of my choices – upon me and upon others? What might some of the unintended consequences be – upon me and upon others? This also contains questions of the future – Who am I choosing to become? Why am I choosing this becoming? If I continue choosing who I am what might I be like in three or five years?
Where did we come from? This is a question of origin. This question can be responded to at a number of levels: the literal level, the metaphorical level, the philosophical level, the religious level, the ancestry level, and the cosmic level. I remember when my son, Nathan, was about six years old he came to me and asked me where he came from. I began to stumble along about how life comes about. He looked at me not quite following me. Then he interrupted me and said, ‘Dad, you don’t get understand. I looked at the tag on Nick’s shirt and it said that he was made in Japan. So where was I made?’ OK – never let facts get in the place of a good story. Although, at surface, this question seems quite ‘simple’ it is anything but and our responses are full of implications for ourselves and for how we view human development.
Where are we going? This is a destiny question. This question can also be responded to at a number of levels – the same levels I mentioned above. A difference for me, however, is that I believe I must look at each level if I am going to emerge a rather ‘full’ response. So, literally, if I continue to follow the path I am on where will I end up (well, death for sure, but what will the way-stations be along the way). If ‘we’ continue along the paths we are following where will ‘we’ end up – will we destroy ourselves or will we continue to evolve and if we continue to evolve what form(s) will that take? At the metaphorical level if we continue to be ‘consumers’ rather than ‘replenishers’ of our world where we end up will be the ‘wasteland’ that T.S. Eliot describes. The metaphors we choose will determine the path we choose. We can spend significant time with each level; if we so choose.
Searcher-Seeker 