I think it’s easy to get caught up in the mess. I think we all have.
It’s the pressure to live up to expectations that were decided for you before you were born, and quite likely before the people who told you about them. The measure of a good life isn’t by your status, the amount of wealth accumulated, or the people you’ve dated or kids you’ve had. It turns out, in a massive plot twist, that the worth of a life well lived , at least in part, is measured entirely by what you did with what you were dealt and what you were given, regardless of what it was or how much.
This simple yet wide-reaching change in the idea of “living well” is so much more “fair” than we’ve believed, and certainly more assuring than the previous way. It shows that it doesn’t matter how many others are in positions you think you should be in. What matters is how much you can and do appreciate what you have, as well as what you intend to do with it. The peace of mind this affords increases exponentially as you cast off generational weights that were never yours to carry. As it was always meant to be: you must learn and then look at the life in front of you, and make a way to pursue the things that bring you closer to the best version of life there is.
Your outlook and what you aim for, what I would call: your Style, fundamentally changes everything about your life. There’s not a thing it doesn’t put its hand to. It is so intertwined with the human experience that it might as well be a part of our DNA. Like an archer aiming past the target, we too must have something bigger tethering us to the ethereal things that we desire. It’s the only way to get what you need and then some— but never too much. Appreciation of what you’ve got is the entire point, remember.
There are old texts known to the Christians that mention how an aim towards the Kingdom of God will in turn take care of everything else you need along the way. “The Kingdom” as they put it, is everlasting in a literal sense as well as representing the embodiments of all things “good” in the universe. The best of them list out very concise and comprehensively descriptive, if not controversial, ways this is a real, tangible concept. But this article isn’t dealing with that at present. Regardless, I find this idea sound and very attractive, as I believe I see what it’s saying for us on an everyday scale.
It is not about having one major aspiration and simply being satisfied in your life and calling it quits (becoming CEO, maintaining the perfect loving relationship, owning land), it’s about something bigger that not only includes that goal, but so many levels above it that actually articulating it in words would only do a disservice as to the actual fullness and feeling of fulfillment it would offer. Plato & Aristotle offered thoughts and speculation on the body and soul, and the latter's continued existence. While seemingly revolutionary in their manner of expression, it seems even they would tell you that the idea harkened back even further. The chasing of our purpose in the short time we have been given is a puzzle that each generation and nation faces. But many of the ones that we still quote today often had a hint of something more than just the material. And it often influenced their entire life & worldviews. This allowed for not only a personal and yet universally fulfilling accomplishment of goals and desires, but also of the mastery of yourself and all its many emotions, your obstacles in social settings, and the general worries of the day.
To “seek the kingdom” is to seek something eternal. Something that far outlives the human life. But as some have and still believe, the human spirit just may in fact live far longer. Possibly denoting why we always have a reach towards the everlasting and timeless, writing stories of immortality and youth as we look into a skull. Maybe there’s something there that reverberates with the intent behind our being here that calls out for truths unknown to us now, but that deep down we really know. We just miss the words for it sometimes.