The Purpose of Life

 I was watching a Youtube video the other day about the person's view of what the movie "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", the 2013 version, really means. And they did well in explaining their view and why they thought of that. I may or may not go into that at some future time.

And in one moment they got into the statement of purpose of Life magazine which is as follows:

"To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of LIFE."

Now that is a pretty bold statement of purpose. 

In order for me to better understand I am going to break this down for myself.

"To see the world". And, in this context, I take it as not just looking at it. I see this as in actually Seeing it. As in the old greeting "I See You". And that greeting says, to me, that I see and accept all of you as you are and are not. To See the world in that context is a very bold undertaking.

"things dangerous to come to". Danger. The thing that we are hard wired to avoid. Not only shall we see it, we shall seek it out in order to see it. We do not avoid that danger, we embrace it.

"to see behind walls". To go and find the hidden things. The things that some do not want us to see. To find the things that some would hoard for themselves in greed. To find those things that are put away in order to protect or defend. Or just escape. To find the secret ways and shameful, possibly, things.

"to draw closer".  Now we are getting to the crux of the matter. To draw closer. To be closer to one another. To be connected by our shared experience and understanding.

"to find each other". To Find Each Other. In order to truly find another one must see them clearly. And in order to see another one must first see one's Self clearly. And that takes work. Deep and sometimes painful work.

"and to feel." To feel. And that can be truly scary for us Humans. To Actually Feel. Especially to feel with another. To Be Open and Vulnerable enough to feel. And then to be even more Open and Vulnerable enough to feel with another. To many of us that is a very scary concept.

"That is the purpose of LIFE." So there is my understanding of the LIFE Magazine mission statement. It is a good statement. Very powerful.

And, I do not believe that this is the purpose of Life. It brushes up against it some. In my opinion however the Purpose of Life is much simpler. And it can be stated in very simple words:

"The Purpose of Life is Service and Connection."

Service. We must, if we want to survive as the Human Race, be of Service to each other. Even, and especially, those who do not Speak, Look, Think, Believe, or Love like we do. Those who are profoundly "different" from as. Or so we perceive. We must be of Service to each other in Community with all.

Or we will not survive.

We can no longer allow ourselves to be divided by those who are invested in dividing us. We can no longer be in our insular little communities and divided from all other communities. We can no longer Be Separate. We must be One Community. The Human Community. Where All are Welcome.

In order to do that, to be of Service to each other in Community, we must have Connection.

And that requires that we Look to our Similarities and Celebrate our Differences.

I see this thru the eyes of Star Trek. In the Vulcan Philosophy of IDIC. Which means Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination.

And it means this: "A core Vulcan philosophy emphasizing that the union of unlike things creates beauty, growth, and progress." And this fits in very neatly with a key concept in the world of 12 Step Recovery: "Our Diversity is our Strength".

I believe, and History shows, that it is in our Infinite Differences that Strength, Beauty, Invention, etc come from. Thru out History Communities that became Stratified and Rigid either changed or died. Mostly died. Maybe not right away. Soon however.

And Philosophically is is thus: "It serves as a reminder for Vulcans to remain open-minded to different perspectives, even if those perspectives lead to disagreements". That also is a great reminder for us Humans as well. To be steadfast in who we are while still being open to a different perspective.

Even when the ones who profess those different perspectives call for your annihilation. To remain open and able to engage in the face of that until one can actually get to the Human behind the rhetoric and engage that.

People who can do that are better than I.

So Being of Service and in Connection with each other. That opens up so many wonderful Possibilities for all of us. Opportunities and Possibilities that are closed to us now.

Because we have allowed ourselves to be distracted into Division by those who Profit from Division. We have allowed ourselves to become insular inside Communities of people with whom we agree. We have allowed ourselves to be distracted from The Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations that we could have.

We have allowed ourselves to become a Fractured Community.

So, my Dear readers, a few questions for all of us. Because I am just as guilty as anyone of all of the above. Because I am part of that We.

• What can each of us do to Live up to Embracing Differences within ourselves?
• What can each of us do to Give up our Fear of the Other?
• What can we each do to embracing and celebrating the Differences in Each Other?
• What can we each do to promote the Community of Humanity for all?

Big Questions. Big Tasks. Huge rewards. Our survival is the ultimate reward.

So, even though I sometimes do not act it, I Love and Appreciate all the members of this wild and crazy Family that we are all in. The Human Family.

And, my Pledge to you, is that every day I will find it within My Self to Embrace our Differences, and Give up my Fear of the Other, to Celebrate the Differences of the Other, to Promote the Community of Humanity that is Open to All.

And, sometimes I will not be any of those things as much as I wish it. I am going to fall down at times. For I am Human. And in all of my Human Imperfections I am Perfectly Human. As are YOU.

So let us all allow our Selves the Grace to be Perfectly Imperfect. Thus, Human.

Namaste