What’s it all about? (Part 1)

I’m on about life. What’s it all about?!?

A heavy question, that’s for sure. Do we need such a loaded question when we’re in the midst of a world pandemic? Really?! C’mon, we’ve got enough to deal with, surely?

Well yes we do. We absolutely must ask this question, and we must all answer it for ourselves.

Some people wonder if life’s just about doing the best we can – you know, being a good person, loving people, doing helpful acts, being kind, raising a family….. But really, is that it??? Is that all we’re here for? Basically to reproduce ourselves like a plant or an insect does?

There must be more to it all than that?

We will one day leave this earth. Whatever we think we know here, for all our smarts, for all our technological advances and scientific knowledge, we really don’t know much about some of basic things that we hold dear. From an evolutionary point of view, there are many things we strive for that make no sense in the light of this basis, and that we have no understanding of.

Let’s take LOVE for example.
LOVE – an emotion, or a bundle of chemicals? Or something more?

I’ve heard some scientists explain love as a bundle of chemical reactions, and some purport that it is an evolutionary instinct, and a necessity to make sure we look after our children. However, we see animal examples of caring for young. Elephants will fiercely protect their young. Do they love? I don’t know the answer to that, but there are many animals that seem fiercely protective of their young. Are we simply operating on the same level as that? I’m not so sure – I’ve seen some broken people who never recover from the loss of a child. That goes beyond a fierce evolutionary protective instinct.

People do crazy things for love, and are able to achieve amazing feats in the name of love. If love were an evolutionary tactic to ensure we rear our young, or a simple mix of chemicals, then couples wouldn’t work through tough times, forgive hurts, go to great lengths to make relationships work, and do things from a selfless basis for the person they love.
Friendship would be nothing more than a system of “what can I get from you / what can you do for me” arrangement.

Let’s move to forgiveness – why forgive people who have wronged us? Joy – what is the point of joy if we’re here really to simply reproduce? True altruism would not exist in this world, as unless there’s something in it for me, there’d be no reason to be genuinely altruistic. Volunteers in the RNLI, Mountain Rescue etc who don’t get paid, and risk their own lives for complete strangers should not be reality in the world. Not if we’re here merely to make the best of it for ourselves and our offspring.

I want you to consider that these things, and many more do not make sense to strive for in the light of the evolutionary field of reason, or in a world where we simply are here to be born, live for a while, then die.

I’m not here to debate evolution – I’m asking you to simply consider what really makes you human. What makes you a feeling, loving, joyful, peace seeking person, who genuinely revels in good, and wants to help people?
A person who would put someone else above yourself. A person who maybe has done something crazy for love! Who has wept at something that doesn’t even really affect you (we've all cried at films or seen awful scenes in the news!), who has empathised with someone who was sad, or in a bad situation.

What I want to do is to consider how much of you feels alive. Consider how real your inner self is. How real the love is that you feel for you parents, or your children, your spouse, your friends, your family members. I want you to think about the last time you really belly laughed with someone and how amazing you felt; when you last felt so much joy with someone that you felt like you could burst. When you looked at the love of your life and felt yourself so bound up with their soul that truly you think your love could set the sky alight.

I want to ask you, if you are, say, above 35, how old you feel inside? Do you feel like (apart from your ageing body) that you are still in your early 20’s? You ask a person who is 50, 70 or even 90, how old they feel and they all say the same: “On the inside, I still feel like I’m 21” is the response I usually get from people of all ages.

Why is this? Why do we feel so young inside? Why do we strive for joy, love, peace? Why do we all want to be accepted?

There’s a part of you, an unseen but very real part of you, that is eternal. That eternal part of you is taking a ride in your body, but will not cease when your flesh and bones can no longer continue. Our bodies are just earth material, made from the earth and the elements here. But the inner part of us, that has come from the eternal, and it will continue. Where it continues is completely up to you.

We live in such a way that we never really stop to consider, what IS this all about? Really? Forget the theories, forget the “science” even for a moment. Because you know, science changes as more discoveries are made. A few hundred years ago, people were convinced the world is flat. Going into space was an impossible dream….

So forget everything for a few moments, and just think about YOU. What are you here for? And what is going to happen to that part of you that feels joy, feels empathy, feels sorrow, feels LOVE? Because those aren’t just chemicals. Those aren’t some primeval instinct you developed, those are part of your eternal self, and YOU have to decide what happens to that eternal part of you, when it has to leave your body.