"Our very existence is a miracle: take your time and be amazed by it!" This has been my motto since I started writing these blogs, first on Steemit, then Tribe and Hive as well. It's unfortunate that, as individuals in modern society, we've got precious little time to actually live by that motto...
source: YouTube
What follows is my opinion only, so please don't see it as an instruction as to how to live your life... There are enough self-help gurus and books out there ;-)
It seems to me that we're increasingly unimpressed by the many miracles that literally surround us at every moment and in any place. We don't see a tree and think "that's a miracle", when it most certainly is. Every expression of life is a miracle. It's so miraculous in fact that science doesn't have an actual precise definition of it. One thing is certain though: we value life. Or we should. We know we should value all life because our own survival depends on the survival of the living organism that is our planet. Yet we've created circumstances for ourselves that do anything but value life; economic growth, consumerism and greed combine to create devastation on scales never before seen.
We're trapped in this viscous circle, where we're told that we have to work hard, hustle every day in order to climb the social ladder and to chase after the dream of material abundance. This constant rat race leaves us with no time to truly appreciate the miracle that is life. We're constantly measuring things and have fooled ourselves into the belief that if you can't measure it, it's not valuable.This is so damn foolish. Everything in life that's truly valuable can't be measured. We can't really measure love, empathy or happiness, so we neglect them. This neglect is the child of the strictly materialistic world view that dominates modern life and modern discourse. We've created a world in which we say "trust is good, but verification is better", rather than just say "trust is good" period. We say that if the value can't be measured, it's not valuable, rather than recognize that most valuable things in life, like life itself, can't be measured.
We have to let go. Let go of this stupid notion that we have to work hard every day to be able to buy happiness. Happiness is not for sale; it's a by-product of a meaningful life, and the only place we find meaning in life is in the relationships we have with other people. That's where we find love, empathy and happiness. Not by constantly comparing ourselves with them and measuring where we stand in the fake hierarchy of our current socioeconomic paradigm, but by truly seeing each other and recognizing each other. We must stop defining our own happiness by the misery of others, and recognize that our own happiness depends on the happiness of others. How can I truly be happy in my mansion if I have to build iron bars before the windows and doors on account of the poor, unhappy people that surround me? I'm happy when you're happy and I'm not happy when you're not happy; this is the truth we all should live by.
The worship of "work ethic", the principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward, is perhaps the biggest enemy of happiness, as it robs us of our most precious commodity: time. Life's a miracle, but we can't take our time to be amazed by it. Democracy is the best and most fair form of governance we've ever devised, but we lack the time to inform ourselves about the best choices. If we live to the age of 75, we've spent 25 years asleep and 25 years at work, a couple of years traveling from A to B, a couple of years in the bathroom... When you think of it, there's so little time left to truly live, to love, to be amazed... We're supposed to be the smartest creatures in the known universe, as far as we know, but we've really not taken advantage of what's been given to us. So please watch the linked video; it's about one of my favorite anime films, "Spirited Away", which is a critique of our modern notion about work ethic. If you haven't seen the film yet, I highly recommend you do; it'll make you remember the care-free life you had as a child and force you to reevaluate your life as an adult for the reasons that are explained in the video...
Spirited Away - Why Work Is Toxic
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