Thoughts on the human condition.

Life is essentially lonely. We come into this world alone, unless we have a twin but we still leave alone. Nobody accompanies us to the grave. No matter how elaborate the funeral, you lie in the coffin by yourself, a frightening prospect. Someone can be in a room full of people yet feel lonely. That’s the reason why people must be able to face their own devil or they’ll fear their own company and must always seek others out. Some people must always surround themselves with friends. They fear quiet times when they will be forced to contemplate on the meaning of existence. Such times should be savoured when we are able to reflect on our life thus far.
Man is a pitiful creature. From the moment he is born he lives on borrowed time. Old age and death are our lot in life. Because life moves in a straight line we progress towards death. If it goes in a circle we would return to infancy and then the human being would have achieved immortality. When the gods first made the human they had never meant to bestow upon him the power of immortality. Immortality belongs to the realm of the gods. I even have a feeling that the gods made us for their own entertainment. They look down upon us from the heavens and laugh at our helplessness and insignificance.
According to Aristophanes, the ancient Greek philosopher, the human was originally one whole, with four legs and arms. It was in a roly-poly kind of shape and would just roll along when moving (really?). The male and female were one whole. One day the “Creator” was so incensed with the human’s arrogance he had wanted to destroy the human race but one of the gods suggested that the male be separated from the female in order to teach them a lesson. That’s why we must search for our other half. He or she who has found his exact half is indeed lucky. You must be like “the stars in equilibrium” with your other half to qualify for this state of having found your exact other half. D.H.Lawrence, the English novelist and poet, came out with this phrase of the stars being in equilibrium because we must click in all 4 components of the human whole – the physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual. However, wouldn’t our life with our partner be so dull if there are no differences, no disagreements etc? Some people scour the earth to find their other half because the heart is a lonely hunter till it finds what is missing. Few can be said to have truly found their missing half but in life we need to compromise for peace and harmony. Even at work, we have to meet halfway to make things work.
We can’t escape this world and we have no choice but to complete our term on this planet. There is nowhere else you can go to. When the time comes you have no choice but to leave, no matter what you have left uncompleted. Man’s fate is beyond his control though his destiny in life is in his hands.
If the ultimate is DEATH, why then do we have to struggle, learn and achieve? What happens to all your achievements after you are dead? Would anybody care about what you have achieved? We have to constantly make meaning out of chaos for life is chaotic. We have to constantly put our life in perspective and try to create order in the face of chaos. Life is a struggle from the day of conception. People have to struggle to survive. If there is a God and if this God created man and loved him why let him wander the earth and suffer? Is this due to the Original Sin? Isn’t this God unfair to punish us for the sin of Adam and Eve? To contemplate on the human condition is to face the truth. What then, is the truth? The truth lies deep in our souls.