Motivations.

Our long-term motivations may be the most important, but it is our short-term motivations that get most attention.

We have a body to care for. It is our priority. The human body is high maintenance. It must be fed three times a day. It smells bad unless it is cleaned every day. We have to take it to the dentist, to the doctor, and to the barber. It needs clothing, shoes, and glasses, and the best we can expect after all this tender loving care is that it does not hurt!

Hiding behind this short-term motivation is a long-term motivation: “What is the purpose of our lives?” We can go even deeper and ask what the purpose of the Homo sapiens could be on Earth

Every individual takes part in the same general evolution. We are never alone. This may be the main purpose of our lives, even if we are not conscious of it.

When you put your soul in something

You put something in your soul.

Civilizations rise and fall like flowers bloom and fade. We are familiar with Egyptian society, as well as Greek and Roman cultures. More recently, in the 15th century, Portugal led Europe. In the 16th century, Spain was the dominant power, followed by the Netherlands in the 17th, France in the 18th, and England in the 19th century. All these countries seemed to follow a similar pattern. The people living during those times were unaware that they were fulfilling the same purpose. They were not separate individuals; instead, they were part of a flow of people like a river moving through the centuries. They serve a common purpose, consciously or not.

We are never alone.

In the 21st century, this flow is speeding up. That doesn’t make us smarter.  To answer the question of “What are we doing on Earth?”, some people turn to religion. Others decide they will be happy once they have enough money or become famous. Everybody is searching for love. The problem is that they don’t know where to find it. Looking for love can’t be a daily activity like going to work.

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Could we find motivation implemented in Nature?

Let’s use a maze. First, we use water to fill the maze. It fills all the dead ends and finds its way to the exit. Water is driven by gravity.

The next step is to replace the water with slime mold, a sticky substance that spreads on dead trees in the forest. It has no head or brain. It will fill all the dead ends of the maze and reach the exit. It will go even further. It will remove what fills the dead ends. Slime mold is driven by the search for food.  Now, let’s place humans at the entrance of the labyrinth. They are unaffected by gravity. They are not looking for food. They lack true motivation. They might not find the exit.

Motivation may be the key to success. It has no shape, color, or weight. You will not find it in the physical world. The key to success is within the soul.  Our motivations control our lives. They are not part of the material world. They can be compared to heat, which is essential but invisible. They exist beyond the scope of science and can even go beyond the boundaries of the human brain. What governs our lives may be buried deep in our subconscious.

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Human feelings

Feelings can run below our level of awareness. Publicity influences what we buy. We use logic to justify decisions based on feelings.

Let’s see what motivations could be hidden behind some of the things we do:

• Skiing

We met gravity the day we were born. It has been with us all our life. Skiing is a way to assess our relationship with our master. We want to go as fast as possible without losing control. A free fall would mean complete freedom from gravity, but that is going too far. We are testing a law of nature: “Use but don’t abuse.” We are assessing our freedom.

• Sunbathing

Could we get our energy directly from the sun? Without any intermediary!

We are prisoners of a natural cycle. The sun makes plants grow, and we get our energy from the plants. This process is not very efficient. Plants could absorb only a limited part of the sun’s light. Think of all the solar energy wasted around the Earth. It is also a very slow process. There must be a better way. There must be a way to bypass the use of plants and connect the sun directly to our bodies. The sun not only provides light but also heat, which makes us feel warm and comfortable. There must be a better way to absorb the energy of the sun than cooking and washing dishes. Sunbathing is our way to show interest in a better use of the sun’s energy.

• Exploring other planets

The first step is to get free from gravity. What comes after that? Do we have to change our idea of time? Space? Exploring other planets is opening the door to a completely different world. It satisfies a basic need for freedom.

• Sleeping.

Mother Nature must have a good reason for taking up one-third of our time. It cannot be a complete waste. She also must have a good reason for concealing what she is doing. Sleeping is one of those things that we are compelled to do, whether we like it or not. It is Mother Nature saying: “You are not here to be happy. I am going to make you work of something meaningful.”

• Touching

We would let a surgeon cut into our body faster than we would allow someone to touch our skin. There is something special about touching another person. Could the outside of the body be connected to the core of the soul? Could that be an association of opposites?

• Wars

Over the last 300,000 years, we have experienced thousands of wars that killed millions for no good reason. That was an external manifestation of an internal struggle to dominate our craving for sadomasochism.

• Visiting other countries

Do you remember Plato’s allegory of the cave? He describes people trapped inside a cave their entire lives. Fortunately, Plato offered a way out. There is a door. Our need to visit other countries may come from the desire to find that door

• Parade

It is a way for people to feel part of a community. We hide behind a uniform. The parade fulfills our need to belong. We need a balance between our desire for individuality and our need to be members of society.

• Moving - Dancing.

Those who don’t hear the music think that the dancers are mad. Dancing helps the music penetrate the body. Moving is an acknowledgment of the association between time and space. Our brain would rather separate them. Our body knows better.

• Cats and dogs

Why do we become so attached to our pets? We build a fence around ourselves as a protection from abrasive interactions with others. This fence also isolates us from genuine contact with others. Cats and dogs might not have this fence. It may be easier to connect with them than to form bonds with other humans.

• Slime molds

The slime molds merge when they run out of food. Many bodies are transformed into one big body that is better equipped to solve problems. Humans don’t merge bodies. They only want to live together in society. Instead of keeping their distance they move to big cities of millions of people. If slime molds can merge bodies, humans should be able to merge souls.

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