Your Coffee Break in the Cosmos Between Birth and Death
A trail of thoughts on consciousness, embodied perspectives, and seeking purpose in the wee hours of the night
What do you want to do with your coffee break between Birth and Death?
There are so many choices! That's the heart of the problem!
Life for one human self is a massive overwhelming experience of existential agency. Everything feels like a choice. We can even choose to ignore it all, blur out our clarity, and temporarily relinquish our agency. Many do.
We seek chemicals, escapism, ignoring ourselves in the infinite scroll, vacationing from daily reality, the myriad vices that one can pursue and distract themselves with. These diversions gather to cover the truth that we are awake and have choices to grapple with at every turn, every moment. It's the heaviest weight of responsibility one could imagine. EVERYTHING is in your hands!
At the same time, most of it feels like nothing at all. So, which of your choices DO make ripples? Which ones matter?
There is also the problem of what seems natural for everything else.
You look at anyone, any other entity, anything at all. They're all so natural, just doing what they do. Guided by some magical force of instinct bestowed upon them from birth, they navigate the tides of their life with confident ease.
Migrating birds flutter in flocks, echoing undulations of fish beneath the blue; the panther prowls, and whales wander the endless seas. They all seem to know what to do. Even clouds, ocean waves, and stars in yawning void seem to have an innate directive that is already known; they need no instruction in what to do with their existence.
If you think about it, even other people seem to have this. We all know -or at least presume- that other humans have the same curse of choice, of agency, and free will to decide. Just like us. Like everyone else.
Yet, we look to others for examples of our aspirations. Their “natural” talents and gifts demonstrate how we should be better.
When we can break this illusion of perception and exchange our thoughts and experience, we realize they struggle with these same fundamental matters of choice. They, too, have hidden insecurities. All manifestations of a self-examining mind. All who are conscious are also self-conscious on some level. When the action is taken and the doing is done, they must ask themselves what to do next.
It would seem that we see anything we can’t communicate with as being innate and natural, without inner conflict or thought. In learning to embody and share the experience of another, we begin to understand their struggle. At that common point of connection with all others, we finally see our reflection staring back at us.