No One Knows What They’re Doing

The simple fact is that no one really knows what they’re doing or where they’re going.

I am offending billions of egos. Please note: The word offensive means nothing to me. Something is either true, or, it is not. To be offended by something is to play a game with yourself — game you play with your make-believe, self-manufactured identity.

Let us discuss truth.

You may watch a man’s life and see much thought and order. The time he sleeps; the time he awakes; his morning routine; his food choices; his job; his family; his leisure time. Man plans a great many things. Man does a great many things.

Why?

Perhaps his societal programming has caused him to sleepwalk into many of the things he does. Certainly, this is true in several respects. But two things still stand out. First, is it not true that he finds merits in his activities, independent of societal influence? Second, why has society drilled these activities into the minds of its inhabitants — surely it must because they hold innate merit?

No.

There is no innate merit in anything. There is only the perceived merit of different activities based on the conditioning one has been exposed to.

Now, clearly, I cannot deny basic biology. A dehydrated man will find ‘innate’ merit in consuming water. A starving man will find ‘innate’ merit in eating food. But I think you know these are not the things I am talking about.

I’m talking about the 99% of your life that isn’t concerned with ensuring your basic survival. I’m talking about the conversations you have; the music you listen to; the work you do; the books you read; the way you spend your time.

The plans you make. The things you do.

All that man does, he does because of some perceived merit in the activity he is pursuing. Perceived merit — not innate merit.

But there is, certainly, something innate at play. Some force — some calling.

The search for completeness. Fulfilment. Perfection. Bliss.

The search burns inside everyone. All the turmoil, confusion, chaos, and anxiety of life ensues because this search is yet to be concluded. The thing is yet to be found. The destination has not been reached.

And virtually everyone who has ever lived dies in this state. Dies having never found what they were searching for. Dies having never arrived at the place they wanted to go.

Man lives his life doing a great many things. If he asks himself the question “why” enough times, about each of his activities, his mouth will eventually seal shut. Before long, he will run out of ways to answer the “whys.”

He will be left feeling confused.

This confusion is the most precious of states. When one finds himself in such confusion, he has been handed a diamond from the sky.

Study this diamond. Understand this diamond. Question what led to its arrival.

Man lives his life doing a great many things. He is so deep in the weeds, he forgot a landscape exists outside of it. He forgot the Earth exists. He only knows, sees, and understands weeds.

Regardless, he continues walking forward. He has whacked so many weeds in his path, he forgets where it is that he is going, or why he is walking forward in the first place.

There are only more weeds to find on this path. Only more whacking to do.

Bar whacking weeds, no one knows what they’re doing.