In a world where humans are thriving, and their essential needs are met with relatively little focused effort, where do they CHOOSE to focus their attention?
For most of human history we survived by being savvy with how we used our life force. The peoples who stored away food (“more than enough”) for the winter made it through. Those who did not store resources… did not.
Wisdom passed down was like that: prioritize food storage over immediate eating. Famines happen. You might even need food for a whole year. You might need to be ready to migrate (and know where other climates are in a different pattern).
What now, though?
I’m not saying that everyone is thriving – far from it globally. But for those of us who are, whose survival needs are met without requiring attention from dawn to nightfall… what now?
What I see in some cases is a kind of malaise. "Well, I can be fed by just moving a finger. Doordash! I can be entertained without my own creativity. Netflix! I can be fed and watered and clothed with a few other clicks.
What I notice is that many people are in this transition zone.
They try to FORCE their primitive brain to see non-survival needs as imperatives. That can be status. That can be possessions beyond what’s is needed (or even particularly useful).
When that FORCE fails, it often includes profound loss or depletion of life energy.
My primitive brain has a lot of capacity to DO DO DO if survival is on the line. It almost “relaxes” into “Yes, we must work to have drinkable water.” In Asheville right now, this is true. The energy I expend for that almost feels… welcome. “Ahhhh, I get to do work that actually DOES mean survival.”
But what if not much WORK WORK is needed to survive? How long can a primitive brain be faked out? And what happens when it catches on?
That’s where I’m exploring Work That Matters.
Work that matters is different. It matters to my heartistry and expression, not to my survival. The idea of “priorities” in a linear way gives way to an ecosystem I’m stewarding.
It’s fascinating.
Rick