Our Unbearable humanity.

When we are in pain we seek comfort. We look for some sort of relief from the gnawing pain. We want a cure for the discomfort we feel. What we really desire is that feeling of peace, wholeness and wellbeing. Nobody likes pain unless they gain something from it.

But we know that something is wrong when we are in physical discomfort, because we have something to measure it against, which is what it is like to feel normal, whatever that is. We know what it is to feel well, and normal, and as soon as we are in pain or discomfort we are able to tell the difference, without the need for a doctor.

However when we look around us, people are in pain, even when their bodies are is healthy, and they have no physical illness at this moment in time, and yet they are still in discomfort.

All humans constantly look for comfort like the hunt for a more comfortable chair ; a bed that brings even more relief; more money to ease the the fear of going without; better drugs to escape this reality; finer alcohol to kill those inhibitions that us them back; a new religion. There’s a market and we humans are buying… Something, somewhere has to make us humans feel better.

People must be in pain, but we don’t even realise it as discomfort. We all spend our lives seeking things that make us feel better. More TV channels, bigger houses, nicer jobs, more fun, more shoes, more information, more friends, another life partner, and more insight to see the world more clearly. More sharks in the aquarium? Something. Anything? This is how we live and this is normal, and we don’t stop to think – “This isn’t right.”

But what do we need to feel better than or from? 10 Minutes ago? This morning? Yesterday? Even though it was a good day, We need something new in order to feel better, because the “older” no longer satisfies. Satisfaction disappears like smoke in the wind. But we always need to feel better than we did before. But this all seems quite normal, because we have nothing to measure our feelings of discomfort against. What is the plumbline for normal happiness? ( If you have found an answer then you are in a minority).

We need to satisfy our appetite for meaning and purpose in our daily existence. We also need to satisfy our desires for physical satisfaction and comfort.

And so often, no matter how much both appetites are attended to, it is still never enough. Or maybe, is it just me?

Being human is unbearable.

We feel that unless we have all that we desire, feel all that there is to feel, and pursue happiness, then our existence is buried in futility. We have no hope unless we can satisfy our appetites. And we can even slip into the mental habit of judging other people by these very same standards.

We have in our world’s history, certain people who have forgone all pleasures in an attempt to satisfy themselves; And then there are the people at the other end of the boat where anything goes, with as much as they can consume. If the answer was in one of these lifestyles we probably would have followed one of them. We would have been sold an idea, Annnnnd bought it with all our life’s savings.

The spooky thing is that we all live with the uncertainty of – have we made the right choices? What we chosen to believe, is it really the truth? Has the lifestyle we bought into really going to satisfy us in the end? But what if we have missed something, but don’t know it? The doubts are there, hiding in the embarrassing shadows of our minds.

The thing is that it would be alright if we had never made a mistake before, but we are human, after all. We have changed our minds, often. We do make mistakes, even on the big things in life.

Oh no! The unbearable humanity we live under. Best we go and buy something, or eat something, to make us feel better.