-noun
The study of human beings.
I see the world from two different eyes, from two sections of brain, from two points of view, through separate lenses.
On the one hand here we are, struggling for survival in a very human sort of way. And specifically, in an American or Western way, which is quickly becoming a global manner for the younger generations. The massive culture we share is an unknown one that is growing exponentially with millions of faces, and ideas readily available on the internet. We don't know where we're headed, yet we're running full speed into that fate.
It's quite interesting, to say the least.
(Still, on that hand) we are fearful of each other, because we have no solid boundaries our culture creates. How we choose to live our lives is up to us largely. We are given these options, but what makes it hard is the fact that everything is available to us. Therefore, we must create our own sets of values and our individual moral codes. Or, we choose our own sub-cultural clubs to join in attempts to create our tribes.
Is this ability to choose, rather than be taught, which complicates the picture. Today, young people are faced with decisions that are difficult to make, are never made, or are regretted in the end. You see, the world is truly in our hands these days. With the press of a button we have access to most crook and cranny on the globe - the complex and intricate place that is home to nature, and society. Some don't realize the choices they need to make and end up stuck in thick jungles of confusion or vast deserts of emptiness. Others, try too hard to make all the choices they feel are right in the wake of societies informational waves and capsize their true souls.
It's really hard to get it right. Dare I say impossible.
Cultures untouched from our history lived like animals. I say this under the best possible light. Their actions were based upon survival. They utilized what was at hand to function on the basic level. With human ability added they were more adept at creating tools to aid in these functions, and they would decorate them too. People celebrated in particular ways, and cooked as best they had figured out for the raw foods around them. Their basic instincts for life were accentuated by their larger brains providing ingenuity, creativity, and appreciation.
We still live with these things, but we lack the localized simplicity of how it used to be. Technology has made cooking easier, travel quicker, and information, ideas, and faces readily accessible. I think this has left us with more room and time for confusion and boredom. Concepts of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Appreciation for life itself is more easily passed over, because young people are trying so hard to decide or figure out how best to live.
What is presented through the media, and even the government is not always the best route. There are no filters in our societies, which offer the healthy and necessary, while discarding the excessive and harmful. People are confused, and thoroughly saturated with information overload. To young people this can be especially hard, without a strong culture to fall back into.
The ways of old cultures may not have been ideal to our standards or ideas today, but they worked to help their members fulfill basic necessities and feel appreciation for their nature. Confusion and boredom of today, was peace and wonderment of yesteryear.
So, on the one hand, we're lost and confused.
On the other hand, we're hilarious (and fun). The things we human beings do on a daily basis and the way in which we do them, in these westernized societies, is silly. From the other half of my brain I see our society as maybe an alien would.
Look at this interesting creatures as they sing to themselves in their vehicles.
See how they climb mountains just for fun, panting and sweating to pass the days.
Watch as they fuss and argue over the most meaningless things.
So, in the middle is existence, the one from ancient cultures and in life today. We can choose to go in any direction, but deep within are those same basic instincts from our histories and in our present day existence. As we drive massive vehicles to venture through the forests and use credit cards to hunt for food, it can be hard to feel that we are truly alive. Yet, we are and so our existence can sometimes seem like a comedy, ironic in how we've made life so easy we can barely feel it, and sad in how we are still unable to equalize necessities across the globe, and just plain goofy in how our personalities enact day to day.
I see myself as an anthropologist, viewing humanity today from a point of comparison with human cultures throughout our time on earth. I like to explore that deep root of existence that still thrives in us today. I think it comes through the worker, who cuts wood and hauls logs all day long, or the Indian wife who spends the day shopping and preparing for a delicious meal, or the Ethiopian priest who wanders the church all day long thinking about scriptures. Oh yes, just push through the plush, fluff, and unnecessary plastic packaging and you'll find humans thriving with their wonderful basic instincts intact.
The worker, the ceremonialist, the mother, and the maker.
Doing what is necessary with the same efforts of our ancestors, fulfilling basic needs while feeling the wonderment of life - and appreciating the energy of existence.
