Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Survival to progress (#172)

This one concept has been the descriptive element in keeping humanity in existence. I have not written much on the concept except to say that it, along with compassion and curiosity, is the fundamental trait that drives humanity at it's core being. The need to survive is overwhelming. It is as powerful as any natural force experienced within existence to date. In my own life the examples of it are many. Most common of it's apparitions are through the emotion of fear. Being afraid to die can make me want to abandon all that I hold dear in order to survive. When Patrick Henry was quoted as saying "Give me liberty or give me death." He transcended the normal reaction of fear of death by the conviction that tyrannical rule was worse than death. The nobility of a conscious decision to sacrifice one's life in order to advance a cause or societal change goes to the principled idealism we as a species have begun to inculcate into our civilized progression. The survival of oneself and of the human species as a whole is ingrained and natural. We struggle to birth, we struggle for resources to survive, we struggle against those who would take our lives through force. The diametric of our struggle to survive with our insistence to give our lives for a principled stance is the natural osmosis of our animal bodies melding with our maturing civilized conclusions. Survival, with compassion and curiosity, is the key for all of us to continue toward bettering our futures and our next generation's futures.

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