We Can Choose To Be More

 

As material human beings we were born to be selfish. It’s in our DNA to protect ourselves. Even in this 21^st century we will take a larger piece of pie, or a little more meat on our plate. It’s a natural tendency that we as dual-origin beings will resort to, and it has hardly diminished over time. At the lowest level of our “humanity” we are trying to protect ourselves so that we survive and pass on our genes to our progeny. More of us, means the human race has a greater chance of survival. This circle of selfishness includes our immediate family. They are a greater “self” that further increases our chance of survival.

But we are more than just human origin creatures. We have the ability to transcend the baser functions of our DNA. We can postpone the immediacy of hunger for a greater prize.

We can forego immediate gratification to create culture and art. We can love more than just our immediate offspring, which most animals are limited to. Our circles of friends may extend well beyond the limits of our daily travel, including foreign countries we have never seen. We can project our consciousness through time, to see what the world can be in the future, and to shape and mold it from a perspective of idealism. This is something no animal can do. This is something only a higher order of being can accomplish, a being who can empathize, imagine, and create. This is the spiritual or progressive nature of a being that sits atop their historical origins and can see where they came from, but also to shape where they are going.

This higher nature of who we are can only be maintained by vigilance, practice and a desire to do good for others and not just the self. It takes work, much like learning and practicing a musical instrument or language. Once you let go of the process, it diminishes and eventually is gone from your ability. You fall back to your origins, your baser self, the lesser not the greater.

Our destiny as stewards of this planet, is to become “the greater”, to succeed in building a great culture of unity, compassion, and dignity, shared by all peoples of this sphere we call home. By transcending the baser functions of selfishness, and Liberty with License, we can do what previous cultures have failed to do. We can end war, most diseases, and create a real utopia, that uplifts rather than denigrates individuals that are different.

This is who we are destined to be, if we are mindful of the needs of others, without prejudice of judgment. This is who we are destined to be if we strive to live above our base early beginnings. We truly are the light of the future, if it is our will to set aside our differences and recognize our fraternal kinship.