Eyes on the Horizon

Carl Jung believed that in the same way that an individual matures as they grow older, their psyche also progresses throughout the years, so that an individual capable of understanding the symbols of the subconscious and with sufficient attention paid to an individual's dreams over a significant portion of a lifetime will be able to chart these developments in linear and understandable patterns. The most powerful forces of psychic development are known as Jungian Archetypes, which represent blueprints for psychic processes and their relevant predispositions. The relevance of this fact is that although we may, at any point in our lives, feel adrift, there are very real and powerful forces in our subconscious that are acting to progress us in some specific direction. In a similar (indeed, connected) sense, I believe that our moral lifetime undergoes the same process.

I believe that morality is inseparable (and from certain perspectives, indistinguishable) from the choices we make for ourselves in the name of happiness and fulfillment. Therefore, it should come as little surprise that I believe we are only truly happy when our choices both agree with and certify the moral center of our beings.

I have always believed that the difference between the chronically happy and the chronically sad is a matter of expectations. Perhaps (and this is a large leap, I will admit) the real difference is our ability to reconcile our daily actions to our morality. Indeed, if we draw a strong and encompassing picture of morality, these two philosophies are not so disconnected as they might first seem!

The other day, when reading a brief synopsis for the upcoming Anne Michaels book, "The Winter Vault", I encountered the phrase "most essential life". I now think that it might be more accurate to say that I re-encountered it in a new context, as it most certain RE-awoke a feeling that I have felt intermittently for a very long time. Whatever Anne Michaels means by this term, to me it is synonymous with the idea of leading the most productively moral life possible.

Concepts can be interesting to other people, as long as we can provide a context that transcends language barriers. And of course, I am not referring to soveirgn languages but to the gaps that exist in conceptual understanding itself. On the other hand, our own inner turmoil is much harder to connect to another person, because we all see ourselves and our struggles through our own keyhole, so to speak. It is a rare gift, in fact, to find someone with whom we connect with even incompletely. People must, it seems, desire some satisfaction that comes from sharing their inner turmoil in a way that makes people understand them. Now, this seems relevant:

"We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies — all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes."

~ Aldous Huxley

Now, I have been undergoing the process of approaching some feeling with this post, but now that I have arrived, I find it hard to penetrate to the essence in an effectively communicable way. Maybe simplicity is best? Here is my attempt at simplicity:

I have begun to question whether a domestic life of meeting one ideal individual, and proceeding to start a family is anything close to my most essential life. I think that my fear of being alone has long clouded my judgment on what is capable of providing me the most lasting and complete fulfillment. But the more educated I become on issues of Finance and Economics, the more the issues of injustice and inequity in the world will not escape my mind. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I believe this is an evolution of my thought and not an abberation, that my moral progression has been moving towards this and will not cease. I believe that I cannot choose to ignore these feelings without long-term and lasting consequences. I am beginning to believe that utilizing all I have in me, all I am capable of to help others may be my most essential life.

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