Language evolved until we were able to express complex ideas. But what is behind our need to share these ideas? What drives us to communicate with our fellow travelers on life’s journey? We do not blog for riches or to protect ourselves. It is much more simple than that. And profoundly more complicated than that. It is, it seems to me, because we do not want to be alone. We are voices calling out in the wilderness, shouting over and over in so many diverse ways, that one single imperative of the social animal.
I am here…
I am here…
It is a difficult and confusing thing to be a human being in the modern era. And the modern era accounts for only the briefest moment of our history. We are social animals, but we tend to forget the animal part of our nature. And we are animals, even if you would rather that we were something else… something more. We have instincts embedded within us that we can not, should not, ignore. Not blind instincts like those of the ants, that bind them together as if by some magic spell. We choose to be together. But we choose based on instincts over which we have no power and which we barely perceive and scarcely understand.
Like the wolf pack, we banded together for mutual protection and strength. From this banding instinct, uniting family and clan and tribe, came not only safety, but companionship as well. And from this sprang friendship. It also pushed us together into village and town and city, thereby leading to all the technological turmoil that is modern life.
Yet even in the city, walking down a street teeming with our fellow human beings, why is it that we can still feel alone? Humans hate to feel alone. The only thing we do completely alone is to die. I am sorry if this offends the believers among you, but this accounts for all the religions devised by the mind of Man. The thought that once we die we might end up alone is too frightening for many of us to contemplate. We used our language to create human concepts of heaven or paradise, where we can be reunited with all those we cherished, while never having to fear being separated from them again. The end of all that we are is infinitely more terrifying than a new beginning, especially if you throw in milk and honey, long lost loved ones, 70 virgins, and endless health and youth. Who wouldn’t want all that? I hope I am wrong about this, but I can’t believe that you are entirely right. You can’t all be entirely right. Can you?
So now, here we all are, surrounded by multitudes, and yet often feeling alone. I would be willing to bet that right at this moment, many of you are typing and reading at your lonely keyboard, while in the same room with you sit those that you love most in this world, similarly engaged in lonesome tasks such as watching TV or texting on their cell phones. It might be something to think about.
I will let you mull that over…
See you in a bit.
Pouring My Art Out 
I am guilty of always typing while others are in the room. Not always those I love or that love me, but always other people. LOL….maybe some I want to ignore…
Well put. I amw atching an awful Sylvester Stallone Movie in which a he play a WW2 POW escaping via a football team against The German Nazi Team. Watching “Escape To Victory” is a very lonely expereience!
I love movies set in that time period, but I could only watch a little of that movie.
It is pure shite!
I never could take Stallone seriously… seriously.
You might die alone, but not me. I’m takin as many of dem coppa’s wit me! They ain’t takin out Frankie “Two Balls” wifout a fight.
-my new character, angry mobster Frankie Two Balls due to the fact he lives in a world where men normally have three testicles
Because of the pesticides in the water?
man… what a difficult thing it is… to have my first comment on your blog have to follow a Hotspurian moment!!!
damn… anyway, WELL said, PMAO!!!
🙂
Hotspurian moment… that may be the best phrase ever.
why thank you kindly, sir… think it will enlarge his head any more than it already is, should he hear of it? (not that he doesn’t deserve every bit ‘o praise he gets)…
🙂
Oh, Ed stops by now and then. We sort of have a relationship… of sorts… by which I mean I idolize him and he tolerates me and is occasionally mildly amused by my antics.
I love reading the opinions, hopes and dreams of weird or stupid people, because it makes me feel better about myself – in the way that the Jerry Springer Show used to, only more literally. In the literal sense of ‘literally’, as in ‘literarily’. Which got a red underline, but I’m sure you know what I mean, unless you’re weird or stupid. In which case, I’d be interested in hearing your opinions and dreams and crap!
That leaves us with something of a catch 22, if I have to be weird or stupid to get your approval. I mean, I shoot for both, but…
I like reading your thoughts and opinions. I don’t care if they are different than mine. It helps me have a greater appreciation for diversity. No one really has all the answers. All we seem to know is how we feel at any moment. And in the next, it could change. Animals? I guess that explains why I can bark like a dog…
Even if there is no answer, we should keep asking the question, and thinking about it.