The paradox of our existence

After writing my blog yesterday about the wisdom we can draw from nature, I watched a very interesting Tedx last night. It was a talk by Alain de Botton who stated that we are the first to be living in a world where we worship nothing but ourselves. He contends this is the reason why we are drawn to nature because we need to feel contact with something nonhuman.

We are the first as a whole who do not believe in worshipping anything outside ourselves. We are told we have the ability to change our lives that God is within. Many of us believe this but at the same time find the concept very difficult to hold onto particularly in times of darkness. I was fascinated by this statement because I often find myself being drawn to nature when I feel I have lost direction. When I question who I am and what I am doing.

I seek solace in the freedom of nature because it exists without anyone taking care of it. It flourishes without being pampered by anyone. It rebuilds after being destroyed by catastrophes, sometimes taking longer than others and sometimes in different ways than it was before. But it always comes back. And I feel such comfort in knowing there is something like nature that coexists with me in a world filled with tragedy, envy and destruction.

In a world where we are told everything is possible. Yet we are struggling to find the possibility that is supposed to be there for us but isn’t.  Alain stated there are more suicides than ever before because people take what happens to them personally.  We live in an age where it is easier to make a good living but harder to feel contentment and joy. And the reason is he says is because we are surrounded by snobs. People who are constantly assessing what we do and where we fit into the socioeconomic picture and whether we are worthy enough of their attention based on what we do.

He says that people falsely believe that people acquire material goods because they are greedy. When in fact people acquire material goods because they want rewards for what they do. They go out and buy designer items with the labels on them because they want to be rewarded for the effort they feel they have put into attaining their success. Which then leads to the envy monster. According to Alain the dominant emotion in our society is envy which ironically is driven by our desire to be equal. We can’t understand why one person has more than we have when we are all supposed to be able to achieve.

We are facing a paradox at the moment – questioning our existence and why we do what we do because we place far too much emphasis on not being ridiculed or judged by others. Rather than just living our lives the way we want to live.