We are a Society

“Society” is a general word for the associations of humans. You might use the word to mean a certain group of humans or you could use it to mean all humans on Earth. No human lives outside of society. Even the lone explorer who never encounters another human throughout life is a member of society. Seem unlikely or illogical? Humans are born of mothers, so far. So a person who lives in the arctic and never sees another human is simply a member of society that is isolated. There is no escape. We are members of society. This fact is like gravity; your opinion does not change gravity; you cannot escape gravity (even outer space has gravity to some extent); it is something that we can discover but it is there discovered or not. Society is the super family of humans on Earth.

We are all in the same super family. We try to segregate ourselves into groups that we consider our own society, but such groups are merely sub-categories of the general society. The isolated individual living in the arctic is a one member society, as the sub-groups can consist of any number of persons.  The super family divides itself into smaller groups based on some human physical characteristic, philosophy, ideology, location, and/or other commonality, though there could be sub-categories of society that have no commonality. The differences used to associate the members of each group would be hard to detect by aliens from another planet because they are actually only slight physical differences or they are differences that exist only in the minds or psyches of the members. We all look mostly alike; we humans. We all are made mostly the same. The differences are slight, but are the focus of most of the separations from one another that we have and have had.

Peace has been a missing part of the super family for a long time. One could argue that there has never been total peace. This argument is easily made when the discord between two or more individuals is added to the mix. Peace between all the members of the human species is very likely something that has never been achieved. Between the sub-categories of human society there have been wars and unimaginable horrors throughout history. They persist even today. Peace is clearly desirable yet it remains an illusive condition. Peace is desired by most people, at least on their surfaces, and still we cannot make it. There are many reasons for this. They must all be recognized and removed.Peace can be attained. Peace must be attained!

Of course, love is the answer. Love has been promoted (pardon the word) by great people throughout history. Saints, sages, saviors, poets, artists, and people throughout the super family have advocated for love, even at the cost of life. Peace is a natural result of love. Love for one another will bring peace, it will also bring answers to all our other problems.

Love is the answer only when it is the love that is the answer. Love comes in probably as many forms as there are individual humans, even as many as have ever been. Are all these versions of love the love that is the answer?

Plato wrote about love and “platonic love” has become a set of words that have nothing to do with what Plato wrote about, unless one extrapolates into tedium that destroys his efforts. Plato’s Symposium is readily available via the internet and the libraries. Suffice it to say, Plato attempted to bring to light a certain type of love. Love can be something that enraptures. Love can be something that is life changing. Love can reunite the individuals of the super family of humans and bring peace at last.

The love that is the answer is something that one must create. One must give life to love. By being the creator of unconditional, invincible, everlasting love, one can find the answer for oneself. Here is where true fulfillment lies.

True happiness cannot be found outside oneself. Just as the laws of gravity apply to us all, the laws of happiness apply to us all. Like gravity, these laws, which are only “laws” because we have no better language, are there to be discovered or not. They are real and they are there to take each of us to our own fulfillment; much as gravity is there to hold us to this spinning ball we call home. Gravity holds us down. Love lifts us up.

As members of the super family, the society, we all have our needs and desires. We all have our paths to follow. No two people can occupy the same point in time and space, so the path to anywhere must be unique for each individual. Thankfully, we can communicate across our paths and share the experiences of our unique journeys. We will find them amazingly similar.

Paths are traversed. Movement is required. Even the act of not moving is moving along a path. It is traversing a path of stillness. Life is happening! Even the option of death is life happening. We are all inexorably bound in life.

In our lives we follow our unique paths to somewhere. But where are the paths taking us? They are taking us where we must go, every one of us.Where is that? Humans have been asking this question a long time. There have been astonishing lives dedicated to seeking the answer to that question. There are many who believe they know where we are going. Perhaps they do, or perhaps they are wrong. Many have suffered and died in beliefs that have proven to be wrong. The answer is available, but it will come to each of us individually for a while until the light of truth becomes visible to all. It is and has been a phenomenon of human behavior to persecute those who disagree with them, sadly.

Many have been subjected to unspeakable horrors simply because they discovered something before it was obvious to the rest of the people. Consider the discoveries that the earth is round, or that the earth is not in the center of the galaxy or universe. History is replete with discoveries of this type and the sad stories about what happened to those who brought them to the people are stories about crimes against humanity. If you know where our paths are taking us, you might be wise to keep it to yourself; even in this “modern” time. Still, we can consider our destinations in general ways.

We are born with a great set of conditions and circumstances that set the nature of our paths. The time of our births sets an overwhelming amount of factors in our lives. If you were born seven hundred years ago, your life would have been very different from that of one born yesterday. You were born as the person you are, nothing more and nothing less. Your identity is set. You are unique but you are mostly like everyone else. You have no choice about who you are. It is a factor of your life just as your time is. You are you in your time. We are all together in this. None is exempt. We are born into the world and all we can do is attempt to negotiate along the paths we find ourselves facing.

The factors that determine the courses of our lives are bound to us. Who can live outside these factors? Who can escape them? It appears certain that the path each of us must take is limited by all the factors of our individuality. Our freedom is only within this limited scope, and our destinations are likewise constrained. So, where are we going? On and on!

To stop moving is to die. Survival requires movement. You must breathe in and out or die. This requirement to move hints that there might be no ultimate destination. If there is no ultimate destination, an infinite journey could be a wonderful fact. Clearly, we can rest and/or linger along the way as much as we like; people doing so are evident to even the most casual observer. Complete stillness is evidently impossible, since even the stuff of matter is an atomic universe of motion. Even in death there is no stillness. Which does not mean that we cannot be still in the classic sense of the word; indeed, we can benefit greatly by such stillness.

Among humans there is a wide-spread thought that life is only to be cast off in favor of what comes after death. It is an ancient ideology. People have lived lives in preparation for the “after-life” throughout known history. None of the people who aspire thusly are doing so outside the lives they have. They are on a path just as everyone else is. The after-life is only attainable through this life and requires death. What will be the nature of that death? It will be the end of a life as a human on a path. There is no way to die without living and there is a possibility that the after-life is effected by life. It seems strange to have to advocate for a good life of benevolence, happiness, and wisdom, since all can suffer or pleasure. Yet, the need is real. Perhaps the after-life is the place to be, but life is the expedient we are inexorably bound to expedite, and no thoughts of the after-life remove this requirement from us. Opinions vary, but all opinions are held in this life. We must deal with this life and that means we must negotiate our paths. We must move.

So, if movement is inescapable, why not move to unite the members of the super family into a loving group that frolics in the excitement of the journey in this seemingly infinite universe of wonders? We can join our forces into a family that nurtures all; that cares for all; that thrills in the uniqueness and the similarity. We can take an assessment of all our needs and desires then set to work fulfilling them. With all our genius, our energy, and with all the work that has been done by our ancestors, we can make life more wonderful than any can even imagine at this time, much less have.

No amount of wealth can make a person’s life as fulfilling as it could be in a world of love. No amount of asceticism can provide the fulfillment that a world of love can provide. If we will simply take charge of our individual selves and set our hearts on the goal of love, every living entity will find its path one of incomparable beauty and joy. Bliss is available. Invincible, ever-increasing, limitless bliss. Now, wouldn’t that be a fine path to the after-life!

Consider for a moment the possibility that there could be an alternative to death, a way to the after-life other than death. Consider, too, the large number of people who believe in reincarnation. There is much to consider!

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