Our Why
Our Existence - Our Growth - Our Happiness Depends On It
We Can’t Do Without A Sharpened Way of Thinking
At a time when we pride ourselves on progress, we nevertheless experience great conflict – on a personal, social and political level.
We have a difficulty communicating, we have fierce disagreements (at practically all levels), we feel misunderstood and despite our “freedom”, we find little room for true self-expression. We are fearful instead of hopeful when we look into the future, and despite the comfort of our material existence, many feel disconnected, isolated, and without a clear purpose.
Have we lost perspective?
Maybe in our effort to have more of life we forgot how we can make it better; lost sight of the difference between economic (material) development and (immaterial) personal growth, between the objects we use and the purpose for using them, between the form of our expressions and the meaning this holds, between the words or symbols we use to create an image of ourselves and our true sense of being. Once we peel back that material film, we find a world of substance filled with meaningful moments, truthful relationships, purposeful actions and valuable experiences. And beyond our tangible tools, we have the ability to play in all the intangible potentialities of our reality.
Unfortunately, we don’t take enough time to explore the make up of our reality. We search for quick results overlooking the processes that bring them about. In fact, we don’t particularly like processes, especially long ones; we expect quick results and regard them as signs of “efficiency”, we appreciate the title of a story rather than the story itself and refer to this as “accuracy”, and we believe in percentages as representative of “truth”. But are these the true meanings of the words, efficiency, accuracy, truth?
We find meaning and purpose in life when we evaluate the ingredients that make it up; when we take the time to engage in the process of creation.
When we move on, we are presented with different options. These represent different meanings, different qualities and therefore different results. The value of the result and the need (purpose) it comes to satisfy depend on the quality of the choices we make. It is this process of creating that defines the quality of the output; we can define the quality of what we create only if we evaluate the process by which it is created. That is why it is the very experience of living that creates a meaningful life.
Evaluations are about critical thinking. A sharper way of thinking results in better evaluations, more meaningful choices, and, therefore, more purposeful actions. We become better at owning our life by becoming wiser and we become wiser when we connect with ourselves and others; when we reflect, examine, question, and define the meaning and value of things.
How can we truly connect with our environment? How can we evaluate what is true or false, significant to us or insignificant? How can we find our true self, when more often than not, the meaning of the words, symbols and figures we exchange remains unsaid? How can we own our path in life when the meaning of our ideas, feelings, choices and behaviors remain unexamined?
So let us not take things for granted. Let us rediscover the true meaning of things and, if need be, let us redefine those things that are significant to our personal growth. Sharpen your way of thinking to gain personal wisdom (Sophia – “σοφία”) and bring out the Best in you. Because only if we cultivate wise thinking can we hope of bettering ourselves and our reality.
We are here to do this together. This is our purpose.