This bird knows what it is doing, where it is, what is going on. This bird knows what its business is and is about it to the fullest extent of its being. Would that we could say the same things about ourselves. My associate pastor and I would ground ourselves by asking, whenever it was appropriate, meaning whenever we found ourselves in a vortex of colliding circumstances which knocked us off our routine and required us to take stock, take inventory and see where we needed to go from here, now, “Who am I? What am I about?” Grounding ourselves in this particular here now to remember where we were and what we were dealing with. And what our business was here, now.
What are we doing here, now? What does life mean for us? What is life asking of us? What does life need from us here, now? These are appropriate questions for orientation, direction, grounding ourselves in the moment and readying ourselves for what may be coming.
It is a practice whose time has come for everyone in the United States and in the world. Who are we? What’s what? What is going on? What is asked of us? What do we do about it?
Let’s start with: What is meaningful for us, here, now? What is our life about that has meaning for us? What do we do in a day that is most meaningful for us? These are grounding, directing, inquiries/realizations. What are we doing here, now? What are we about? How does that serve, reflect, exhibit what is meaningful for us?
What do we do that has meaning for us? My personal bias in this search for meaning inquiry is to say that four things are likely to be the most meaningful thing for a large portion of the world’s population: sex, drugs, alcohol, money. Beyond that, what? Partying and entertainment. How much of the world’s population live in the service of partying and entertainment? How much of the world’s population live lives going nowhere, doing nothing?
The short dialogue between Rocky Balboa and Mickey Goldmill in the movie “Rocky” captures our situation perfectly. “It’s a life,” says Rocky about how he makes a living, “It’s a waste of life,” retorts Mickey. How much of life worldwide amounts to “a waste of life”? And how do we turn things around? By finding what is meaningful for ourselves and serving it with our life. No?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 