"More" is Not the Answer

 Up until the 21st century, it was always thought that "more" was always the answer -- and never that better might be less, and even different -- from what we presumed was true -- because the self-proclaimed "experts" said so -- because they purchased their certificates from those who sold them.  But usually, it takes more than money to make one an expert in any field; it takes time, effort and insight -- in actually learning to think for oneself -- because that is what makes one truly an expert, and not the countless drones merely repeating what somebody else told them is the truth -- and they have no way of finding out the truth of the matter for themselves.

And that is the beauty and joy of life -- discovering the truth of life for oneself -- instead of repeating what all the countless drones before them have -- despite all lack of success.  One doesn't want to be among the countless failures who simply "know better" -- while the world around them collapses on top of them.  We have a glut of too many of such experts.  Some things we use and abuse too much, while other capacities, we use not enough -- and that is the justification for the exercise of those capacities, and not that one must run oneself ragged as though somehow, that was the answer to any question -- under all circumstances.

More often than not, every situation is unique -- requiring the appropriate unique answer for each individual -- rather than the "one size fits everybody" terribly of the last half of the 20th century.  We live in a world now that is fully capable of being custom-designed for every individual -- and not the hand-me-down society that was good enough for all the previous generations.  But that requires a little bit of personal initiative from each individual -- and not that the government is going to ensure that for everyone equally successfully -- as the politicians promise.

That's also very 20th century -- the government knowing what is best for everybody -- rather than each individual determining that (better) for themselves -- because they have those abilities available to them.  That includes health better than the institutions are capable of providing for them.  They can now take unprecedentedly better care of themselves -- beyond what the medical systems alone can deliver.  Because ultimately, they are better able to provide and determine those things for themselves.  And surely, that must happen -- for there to be continued evolution of the human experience.

Simply repeating life as it's always been experienced before -- is not the end-all, be-all of existence.  There are always these quantum leaps to where life has never gone before -- but works better, as another one of those fortunate accidents that happens because life makes it possible.  What if we have to get better -- and there is no choice about it?  Those in poor heath will not survive -- not because we are prejudiced, but because it is a fact of life.  Only one's best will suffice.

But does that simply mean doing the familiar old things more -- or is there some other dimension of unlimited possibilities -- unimagined before?  That is the very march of progress and evolution.  Not more on the continued pattern, but the leap to better understanding and appreciation of the whole -- which has always been the next frontier.  Otherwise, we just go around in circles doing the same things we did last year, and fearing there is nothing else -- but more of the same.  At such times, civilization has come to a dead end -- of which different measures are entirely necessary.

Such changes do not simply take generations to change and manifest, but is the speed of life as is possible today.  At first there will be only the few, then a trickle, before a torrent, and then the stampede to the new.  Of course one hopes to be on that leading edge -- and not the rear guard defending the status quo that have already fled leaving them holding the bag -- and nothing else.  That is always the quandary living in any time.

Are you a bagholder, or one discovering the greatness of life -- even for oneself?  And that does not mean living half one's life waiting to die -- from the next Big Thing.  Surely, one deserves more than that.  Does one go out on top, or only halfway there? -- or never knowing for sure where one is.  It is all a blur -- from one calamity and crisis to the next -- with never a moment to rest and appreciate all one has -- before desiring the "more."  More often than not, the answer lies in something else entirely -- and that frame of mind, is truly "fitness."  It is the obvious.

It's the range of motion that is the exercise -- and not the limited range of movement (thought) done more often.  That is movement into the 21st century -- and beyond.