Social Revolution Part 4: Fulfillment

Hello Readers,

Now, talking about fulfillment might lead one to believe that this is going to be a very individualistic post. However, the idea of fulfillment is extremely important if we're going to talk about transforming society. Also, fulfillment is something that can give life to the community or destroy it based on how one interprets what it means to be fulfilled. Therefore, we have to build a definition of fulfillment that keeps in mind the common good of the community while meeting individual people's legitimate needs.

To start building a definition of fulfillment, we need to engage the longing of people. An easy way to think about longing is to look at what people complain about most. Lounging about my environment the most common things I hear people complain about are about work, or about other people that are different/are causing problems. Therefore, this anecdotal example shows two enemies to having fulfillment in one's life: difference and stress. While there are many other problems to finding fulfillment, I want to focus on these two pieces to narrow our focus to something common in different populations.

Stress hinders fulfillment because it hinders people's ability to do the things they really enjoy. Some workload is because of the job itself, because every job has deadlines and things to meet so that productivity can occur. However, there is also stress people experience working from simply not enjoying the work they are doing. Since money and the economy is important to survival, people need to work to make their ends meet. Therefore, some people are in jobs that do not fulfill them. This leads to anxieties and lost hopes as people do not fulfill dreams they once had. These build as depressants and many people cope in different ways. When people do work they find unfulfilling, work loses its integration with the rest of people's lives, and as such, work is always seen as a burden, and everything else that goes on is more fun.

In some sense, this explains the life of a college student for many of them. College students work all week on homework, classes, student employment, activities, and stuff, and by Friday, students are exhausted. In the life of a student, this not a 9-5 task either. Classes & activities and stuff can go from 8am-midnight or later when thinking about homework. By Friday, students want care and anything else besides work, so they resort to various escapist activities from real life. Of course a similar model applies to people working dead end jobs. People work their jobs and then go home to do anything else (drink, do drugs, play D & D, etc.) However, this lack of integration cannot sustain people forever because it is built in a reality that is not real.

To continue to have a separation between pleasureable work and pleasureable play makes people feel broken from themselves. Work needs to get done, but we should do our best to be in positions where we can enjoy the work we do and feel like it serves the world in some way. If we can be drawn to deeper relationship and more connectivity with ourselves and others, then we can find more fulfillment in work, which in itself, leads to less stress.

The second thing that I want to discuss about hindrances to fulfillment is about difference. When we are in different situations, where there is a lot of change, or simply an existence different than what we are used to, it causes stress. A fear of difference can hinder fulfillment because it keeps people from trying all the crazy things they never dreamed of trying. Also, this fear of difference and standing out is engrained in our societal norms on many levels. Structures, organizations, and people in power all like the status quo, no matter how much suffering it may do to the majority of people. In these models, the elite also try to find ways to justify the status quo in saying that it serves a majority of the people, that these differences we perceive are inherent in nature and as such our societal/religious structures are appropriate for our world. And while I want to retain religious and civil structure as it is another means to serve the common good, we need to enable people to stand on their own and serve the common good and be themselves.

It's important to be oneself as one will never be happy unless she is herself. And if this means she feels the need to speak or act against important structural issues or problems in society, then she should speak and be enabled to speak. While we might not agree with everyone's formulas for making the world a better place, we need to enable people to be different so everyone can use his different gifts/charisms to serve the world. A fear of difference keeps us from each other and keeps us from being fulfilled, so the solution is to gradually build one's characters as one that accepts difference. How we start to accept difference is to realize that we are all different ourselves, and as such, "I" should act like a different person. Without standing on our two feet, we will never inspire the change we want to see in society, and we will not be able to lead others to find more fulfillment.

So where do we start? We have to start by asking the questions that inspire people to think about why they are doing what they are doing, and are people being fulfilled by what they are doing? The Why Do You Do What You Do campaign is an example of an organized campaign that is provoking some thought. To be really revolutionary, and really inspire change, as individuals, we need to do this for the people around us. Anyone, anywhere, can be a guide by listening and being willing to meet the other where she is at. We can ask the hard questions, and wait for the answers. Our mutual journeying as a people requires that we seek the betterment of the other, because we are responsible for the other that we perceive in our being-present-in-the-world. (Yes, I'm borrowing this idea from Heidegger. :) ). Part of being responsible for the other is helping the other be truly fulfilled and being a sacramental sign of that fulfillment, through various forms of love and care.

Aristocrates