In the spirit with which I ended last week's post, I'm starting this week's with this wonderful human (and musical) story:
I've been thinking about what we do and why do we do it.
Why we do what?, you ask. You know, what we do. Even if too much of what we do is more mindless than we'd like to admit, there still is a reason.
Ask yourself, what do I want to do? It's a pretty simple, straight-forward question. However, it doesn't take too long to confront the next question, why?
Why do I want to do that (whatever it is)?
I suspect the answer is nearly always connected in the end to another word that starts with 'w'. Who? Because of who I want to be.
Let's play it out a little more practically.
As I lay in bed in the morning, I am aware of a question. Do I really want to get out of bed this morning and work out or just stay right where I am? I can lay there and think about it, but at some point, I have to decide whether I'm going to or not. Typically, I end up getting closer to the answer by asking myself, do I want to work-out? And, the answer to that question is engaged by another one. Why?
Why do I want to work out? I want to get up and work out because...I want something. I realize that I want the benefit of doing something more than the comfort of not doing it. Like everyone else, some days I don't seem to care about all that. But, after a while in life, I have recognized that I really do (care). So, I get up and work out (most days anyway).
Before it's all said-and-done, though, I invariably get tossed towards at even deeper question. What is the benefit I want anyway? In this case, I feel better when I work out, it is good for me, and I want to be healthy. Why do I want to be healthy? Well, I remind myself, I don't want to be sickly, always without energy, unable to do very much, etc. ...in essence, unable to be very much. So, now I'm really into the third 'w', who. In essence, I'm really saying who I want to be is motivating why I do what I do.
I choose what I want to do because the benefit of doing so puts me in a better position to be who I want to be.
This, sometimes, can take a while to figure out. But, it tends to happen over the course of one's life in one context or another. And, as we are more aware of who we really are, a whole new kind of energy kicks in. It propels us forward and frees us to be more and more of it.
Generally, and beautifully, this ends up taking the shape of what we offer the world, the gift we give to it. And, once this dance really gets going, my giving of it often turns into a kind of receiving as it engages the same mechanism in others. In a fully flourishing state of things, it is quite a sight to behold — everyone giving and receiving, receiving and giving in return.
Like music, it becomes both the substance and the mechanism. I think this is why I was so drawn to the documentary above. The beauty and the power, of and for the people involved, are nearly magical in depth and scope.
I want to be like that. I want to live like that. I want to give like that.
