Life Energy

An interesting speaker on a recent NPR program captured my attention as he opined that we live in a “culture of anticipation”. Perhaps that is what is wrong with all of us. We are always anticipating the next event. No one is content to sit and simply accept the NOW ! No one wants to simply listen to their own heartbeat.

Well, for my money, such a non-activity sounds pretty boring all right! Does this mean that I am an adrenalin junkie? Nope, and neither are most of the rest of us that are still alive. Sitting and watching a beautiful landscape is okay. Watching the birds and the clouds is okay. But just sitting and not even being engaged in reflection? Man, you gotta be stoned or, in my world, very weird.

This is not a cultural trait as much as it is a trait indigenous to our species. I believe that everyone, outside of some practitioners of certain mystical eastern religions, lives a life of anticipation to some extent. Because we are cognizant of a past, present and a future, we cannot help but wonder what that future holds for us. As we age, the envisioning of those events can become depressing for a lot of individuals. The reason for the depression is that we direct our attention to a long term future of which we cannot be a part.

I believe the solution to this problem is to envision and be a part of events in which we can expect to be a participant in the future. The tree we plant today will shelter our descendants within its shade and provide those descendants with fruit many years from now.

If we view ourselves as a form of energy that is expended over time, you begin to see why I believe it is imperative to exercise some thought in the choice of the individual activities that will fill that time period. Because my dog cannot imagine tomorrow’s bowl of dog food, he won’t think about it until I begin to fill the food bowl. At that moment, he will realize that food time is now! And he will jump around in his exultation and anticipation of the food he sees that he is about to receive.

In that same way, a lot of people waste their precious energy on activities that fill their day but do nothing to make the world of today a better place for eons of tomorrows. For instance, gobs of activities are out there upon which we can expend our life energy.

Certainly the first item upon which we are required to spend some life energy is insuring that we maintain that energy as long as possible through the process of eating. In order to eat, we must usually earn money through some process. Some of us, however, have finished that portion of our lives where we are required to work for food--or so we think. We believe that our pensions, savings or other entity will provide for our future. Let's rethink that subject.

The world is presently entering an era where population, always expanding exponentially, is bereft of the means of individual energy maintenance. At least there is not be the means to maintain the individual energies of everyone on the globe.

But wait! We have been there before. Starvation, plague and war have done their part to resolve the issue in previous times. In addition, our knowledge has expanded and permitted increased agriculture productivity and medical advances. A globe intertwined with trade and commercialism has also aided the cause. Accordingly, a normal question to ask is why should we not expect the situation to continue?

The question of whether the situation will continue is one that can safely, absent a nuclear Holocaust, be answered in the affirmative.. At the same time, remember that the depth and breadth of the situation to be treated by natural means (starvation and disease) may be much, much larger as many more individuals will soon face the life effacing tonic required to cure an ailing world.

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