Lynx Thoughts

This is a philosophical statement. It is intended to spark thinking and examining.

What do we truly want in life?

That is, what, as human beings, are the things that we all, in common, over and above all else, at our core want and aim for in life?

There are probably a million answers people could give.

To be something universal, these things would have to be very broad based in their reach.

There would probably only be a handful of them.

And the specifics would be as varied as the as the variety of people and personalities that are out there. How people would achieve them would be equally varied.

Grouping things, as always, is fraught with pitfalls.

Listing things can also imply an order, or hierarchy.

Without regard to order, or attempting to limit, my take on it currently is as such:

Continued Existence

Being Related to Others

Fulfillment

Making a Difference/Being Creative

Agency

A succinct yet expansive list.

Many of the activities we take or do as humans cover or impact a number of these at once, and that’s great. Those activities, for us individually, are what light us up the most.

Many may seem contradictory, or one is necessary for the other, but I think not so much. Even in our earliest days as a species, when things were touch and go in terms of food or shelter or not being eaten, we still painted on the walls. We gathered.  We sang songs. We created items of design and beauty.

It is our strength and connection and drive for all of these that have allowed us to come along this long and this far.

Each one is as important as the others; each are vital to the being of a human being.

Some may call to us more strongly than others at different times of our life. Things wax and wane.

It is likely that I/we as an individual often don’t recognize that the actions or how the actions of others are also aiming to fulfill on these. We know ourselves and our views and how we like to and how we do accomplish these, and erroneously assume that it is the same for others as well. Without looking out for it, we may not see it or assume (and label) others as being dead in one of those areas.

On the flip side, even though these are fundamental and we crave them, often we have barriers to our experience of them or to our ability to act on and to be effective towards them. These barriers are not flaws, or we are not broken, they are just barriers. When they are removed, the experience of life intensifies gloriously.

These may not only be wants per se, they may actually be human needs.

When we are thwarted in achieving these, either through our barriers or from external sources, or both, we react very strongly. We fight for them, in various ways.

When we experience them, however, it is a visceral, blissful feeling.