As humans we have multiple components to us. I’ve gone over this subject dozens of times but it bears repeating. We have a physical component to ourselves, a mental component, which includes emotional, and then we have a spiritual component. And all of these ‘components’ are interconnected. They all feed off and into one another.
People hate it, but someone who is good looking is actually more likely to have more innate intelligence than someone who is ugly. Likewise someone who is mentally gifted is more likely to be able to find spiritual wellness and the like. However with hard work obviously any of these components can far outgrow the others.
Sometimes this is needed to bring up a weak area and other times it leads to imbalance. Most people choose one of these areas and double down on it, ignoring the others. They focus entirely on becoming physically well, mentally well, or spiritually well, ignoring the others.
Which leads to imbalance, which leads to all sorts of problems.
10,000 B.C. & The Pursuit Of Happiness
But there’s more than that to who we are. We are biological creatures that were created to fit certain purposes. We were made to ‘multiply and prosper’ to have descendants who go on to create greater things then we did. We were made for struggle, love, and all of the other things to go with a human life. What we need for fulfillment is relatively basic things. Except for the modern world takes these basic necessities and makes them either hard to get or an impossibility.
For example. Let’s take a guy, we’ll call him Bob. Let’s say Bob lives in a ‘third world’ country. Bob is a goat herder and has lived his entire life in his village in the mountains. He got married in his teens and has multiple children with his wife. He spends his days herding the goats and teaching his children how life around the village works. His nights are spent with others of the community sharing meals and telling stories. All in all Bob goes to sleep a happy and satisfied man.
Bob has what he needs to fulfill his biological needs. Namely shelter, sex, food but even more than that a tribe and a purpose. He’s rich in many ways.
Take another guy. We’ll call him Don. Don lives in a ‘developed’ country. He works a six figure job that keeps him at work and with high blood pressure fifty hours a week. He has a wife that’d divorce him the instant the money stopped flowing as well as two children who live confused undisciplined lives and lack direction. Fast forward fifty years.
Bob has twelve grandkids and spends his time playing soccer with them in the village center. Good food and rough living have kept him strong and disease free. He’s happy and satisfied. His sons were married to respectable women and his daughters to worthy men. He spends his nights around a fire with his wife, looking up at the moon.
Don has gained weight and had one heart attack. Him and his wife divorced when the two kids left the house. One committed suicide and the other gets used and abused by a string of different men. Bob loves his life and Don regrets his.
Now granted these are hypotheticals and with hypotheticals you can make just about anything into anything you want. There are dangers Bob faces that Don with never have to. There are threats that could take Bob that Don will not have to worry about. And so on and so forth.
Yet at the same time I think we can say when it comes to life satisfaction Bob is probably going to be the winner.
None Of It Makes Sense
The modern world does not want us happy, fulfilled, or anything close to either one. It wants us constantly moving, constantly chasing after something. It wants us just one more step away from getting the thing that’ll finally satisfy us. However it does this while none of our true needs are ever met. With our biological needs left unfulfilled, nothing else is going to matter. With our mental, spiritual, and physical needs unmet other things aren’t going to help.
Stuff won’t help, even money beyond a certain extent does little. But this goes beyond just turning away from materialism. It has to do with understanding basic biological needs and why so many are unfulfilled. You have to undo the years of brainwashing and truly think about these things. Do you feel unfulfilled? Are you biological needs being met?
Sure you probably have shelter, water, and food. And many Western psychologists act as if this is basically all a man needs but it’s not. A man needs a tribe, he needs community, and he need purpose. So how do we get these things? This is a lot harder in the modern world. Though more and more basic things like affording a decent home in a place that’s not dangerous is harder and harder as well.
‘Developed’ countries are becoming the ‘third world’ without any of the good aspects. Your food and water will be poisoned and barely edible and you’ll work night and day to have a roof over your head. But you also won’t have community, tribe, or a purpose. None of that makes sense. How could anyone be happy going down such a road?
Keep Searching
Food, water, and shelter are met, now what? What does that attach to? What does that lead to? Tribe, community, purpose? Without these things how will you live a truly fulfilled life? What we need is often simple but becoming harder and harder to come by. Partly by design and partly because we’ve forgotten so much. Look for the simple fulfilling things. They’re there…if you search for them.
You might be surprised where you find a tribe, where you find a community, where you find purpose. The first part is understanding that these are needs just as much as money and anything else is. Just as much as food and water. And with that understanding look to address these needs and get them met.
Focus on the simple things, the simple needs.
That is the best antidote to living a life of emptiness. Find your people, find your purpose.
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-Charles Sledge
