The Deepest Need of Man

There are SO many topics in the twitterverse and facebookland that pop-up and spark posts for me!  My head's spinning with the possibilities.  To be honest, my head spins a lot, normally.

Anyway.  @AndreasChoice, of whom I have become a regular viewer on YouTube of her videos, mentioned that there are some "weird @ss things happening in 2012".  I smiled wryly, then recalled an earlier conversation with my cousin.

We were saying that there seems to be an inordinate amount of people, well, "eating" body parts.  Let me say that a different way.  There is CANNABILISM and I'm not talking about in the deepest scariest jungles of Africa or the Amazon!  In one week, there were at least 4 stories of such frightening tales, you'd think you were watching Horror Night at your local theater.

Part of my reboot this year includes being more aware of the happenings of the world around me.  Sounds simple?  Not so much.

Most of us, wake, complete our routine, make our way to a job, complete our jobs, eat a few times in-between, make our way to dinner and tv, until it's time to bed-down and start again in the morning.  We have opinions that we express with co-workers, friends, and family, usually the same as theirs.  We veer on the weekend to include errands and activities we had no 'time' for during the week.  We might throw in a movie we saw an ad for or dine out at the place we heard was good, or that we go to every weekend.  We are alright with that.

What we don't see is what's around us.  What we don't feel is happening on levels that we ignore.  What we don't hear is the bad news or any news, for that matter. 

Now before you start thinking UFO's etc. know that I am, reasonably sane.  As Plato taught, in humans, there is a desire for transcedence beyond what is around us.  Part of it is considered, self-awareness.  Your dog or cat has no self-awareness, but we do.  We are even aware of our self-awareness and this can go on and on.  But also, we must be aware of the group dynamics around us. 

For instance, the U.S.A.'s group dynamic, as individualized and free as we like to think ourselves to be, is actually pretty similar to the rest of human race.  We actually go out of our way to make ourselves different by getting tattooes, piercings, dying our hair, dressing unusually, or being 'artistic' with our lives.  What happens is, eventually, others 'catch-on' and start to do the same thing and we are no longer unique.

We're convinced we want this uniqueness, this way of standing out from the crowd.  What we really want is to belong.  Stay with me now. 

Once the basic biological needs are cared for, what we crave is transcendence due to our self-awareness.  We think we want everyone to just leave us alone to do our thing.  The unknown result of the awareness of separation from the world is that it arouses anxiety in us. 

One day, I'll finish reading The Art of Loving, but I want to take my time and live it as I read it.  In the chapter on the Theory of Love, Erich Fromm, describes the consequences of separateness:

"The deepest need of man, then, is the need to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness.  The absolute failure to achieve this aim means insanity, because the panic of complete isolation can be overcome only by such a radical withdrawal from the world outside that the feeling of separation disappears-because the world outside, from which one is separated, has disappeared."

So, the solution to this insanity is a radical withdrawal, to become a hermit. That seems to work really well for those in prison in solitary lockup. (insert sarcasm here.)

This is not a reasonable solution for most.  The point is, we need one another.  The transcending is of our own individual life and finding "at-onement" as he writes. 

Our human condition, our existence, is based on each other and on the planet on which we live.  With that separateness is, as stated, anxiety, guilt, shame, loneliness, all which can lead to, also as stated, insanity (Big jump coming, hang on!) AND CANNIBALISM!

This is what I'm picking up from the news daily.  Surely, others have noticed the increased pharmaceutical ads to "treat" these conditions, the number of self-help books on sale, the increased "bipolar" diagnosis, the number of people hurting each other (emotionally, financially, physically, and spiritually.) 

On the more positive end, we are aware of the love that is needed in our lives to survive.  Of love exists self-love, which is not the same as selfishness, brotherly love, love of God, and love between a parent and child. Unfortunately, there are those who think the only love that is available and worth pursuing is erotic love, and few get that right.

On that note, I'll leave you with what Fromm included in this book, a beautiful poem by Muslim poet and mystic, Rumi.  It describes the necessary polarities in loving relationships:

"Never, in sooth, does the lover seek without being sought by his beloved.

When the lightning of love has shot into this heart, know that there is love in that heart.

When love of God waxes in thy heart, beyond any doubt God hath love for thee.

No sound of clapping comes from one hand without the other hand.

Divine Wisdom is destiny and decree made us lovers of one another.

Because of that fore-ordainment every part of the world is paired with its mate.

In the view of the wise, Heaven is man and Earth woman: Earth fosters what Heaven lets fall.

When Earth lacks heat, Heaven sends it; when she has lost her freshness and moisture, Heaven restores it.

Heaven goes on his rounds, like a husband foraging for the wife's sake;

And Earth is busy with housewiferies: she attends to births and suckling that which she bears.

Regard Earth and Heaven as endowed with intelligence since they do the work of intelligent beings.

Unless these twain taste pleasure from one another, why are they creeping together like sweethearts?

Without the Earth, how should a flower and tree blossom?

What, then, would Heaven's water and heat produce?

As God put desire in man and woman to the end that the world should be preserved by their union,

So hath He implanted in every part of existence the desire for another part.

Day and Night are enemies outwardly; yet both serve one purpose,

Each in love with the other for the sake of perfecting their mutual work,

Without Night, the nature of Man would receive no income,

So there would be nothing for Day to spend."

We need each other, however we find each other.  That one's mine.

Have a blessed weekend!