What did you do today? And “nothing” is incorrect.

Philosophy and religion, in their truly infinite range and scope, have grappled with the question of what it is to be alive, furthermore, what it is to be human. They’ve wondered what or where is consciousness. They struggle with choice and free will. They’ve tried to order the universe or have even given it over to chaos.

The avid reader of philosophy is often blinded by the complexity, the tossing-about of multisyllabic, esoteric, arcane language, the seeming equally infallible logic of opposing viewpoints, and the ideology. What are the answers?

Let’s make one thing clear: I’m no sage. I am no genius and I do not claim to possess special knowledge. But so much of this is perhaps quite a bit simpler than the last 3,000 years or so of philosophy would have us believe.

We are here to do.

Wow! Do I get my Nobel Prize now?

I could leave it at that, but let’s examine the implications. If this is true, wouldn’t that imply that we are free to do? I think so. Ok, let’s give a round of applause to the existentialists. If we are here doing something, it would stand to reason that we exist, correct? Thank you Descartes, you are dismissed! You were so, so close. Let’s see, I think I am going to take a leap here and say that whatever we do exists in some sort of context. If what you do is drive a car, then you must exist in a society with cars and gas stations and driver’s licenses and roads and you probably have to go somewhere that isn’t within walking distance and presumably has a parking lot. Welcome to the party post-modernists.

Doing is what it is to be human.

But where does doing come from?

Here’s where things get a tricky. THEE calls it “Will.” But Will is a bit mysterious--as most origins are. It might be where consciousness meets biology. It could have something to do with the drive to survive. Really, it’s just a word that THEE uses to describe the source of creative energy and potential in people. Finding its location is not really important because we can all agree that it’s there somewhere. Every time you do something, anything, from the mundane to the triumphant, you’re using that energy, that potential.

Before you get to thinking that there’s some glowing, effervescent light emanating from you, just waiting to guide you to your own personal utopia, remember that Will is at the root of every human endeavor. That means great works of art as well as horrible crimes against humanity, acts of supreme kindness as well as terrible violence.  Will is both creative and destructive.

Let’s say you’re a car (just go with it). Will isn’t in the driver’s seat; it’s more like the motor--providing blind and directionless energy. If everything is working properly, the energy is used for its intended purpose--to move the car. If things aren’t working properly, the destructive consequences could range from being stranded on a deserted freeway to pieces of metal are flying into the air while highly volatile liquid spews flames at innocent passersby. 

I bet you’re wondering what (or who) is in the driver’s seat. Well, it is the elephant in the room. To start you off, check out the 7 realms of endeavor and we’ll talk about it more next week.

But as a sort-of lesson-of-the-week, if you can take anything away from this post, let it be that there is, in all of the complexities of life, something very simple, elegant, and mysterious at the root of what it is to be human, something beautiful that we all have in common. If we can understand it, and its implications, a better person and a better world could be possible.

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.” -Kierkegaard.

Maybe you’ve had those conversations with your friends, a few beers in your belly or just feeling vulnerable and open for whatever reason, and you asked them: “What if life is just a dream?”

It’s laughable isn’t it? It’s so cliché! Life isn’t a dream, silly! We can reach out and touch it. It’s our wooden or brick houses, our metal cars, the chairs we sit on, the food we eat, the air we breathe. It’s the other people we know, the dust and dirt, waking up in the morning--every morning. It’s work and family, studies, bills, obligations, TV shows, and our parents and friends. It’s repetition and consistency. We have children, they grow up, we get old, we die and then they do the same. It’s verifiable, solid, and everyone we know sees and hears and feels and tastes and smells it too.

I’m not writing this to try to say that this isn’t the case. Sorry to disappoint. But I do want to make a distinction. I want to propose that there are two realities. They often seem like one, and understandably so.

One reality would exist if there were no humans. The Earth would still be a spinning rock in space, orbiting a bright yellow star, ever an unquestioning slave to the forces of gravity and entropy. The trees would still grow, and when they grew too big and the wind blew, they would buckle under their own weight, crashing to the ground with groans and crackles while their branches snapped and tore at neighboring trees until nearby forest creatures startled at the sound of a dull thud as they met the ground. The sky would still suck water out of the oceans and dump it on the land where rivers would flow through sprawling grassland and past content, lazy herds of four-legged herbivores, ever watchful of the predators on the fringes of their view.

The other reality is our own deliberate creation and positive choice. The cars and houses I mentioned before, the chairs, the bills, the children, the music we listen to, religions, ideas, political systems, successes and failures, parties and festivals, friendships and families, books, schools, artistic masterpieces, love and hate are all manifestations of this reality. It is as small as a tiny child picking up a toy and examining it and as large as two great nations going to war.

These two realities merge and interact and play off of each other. The buildings we build and the cars we drive and even us--the human race--occupy physical space and become a part of the landscape. Even the chemical composition of the atmosphere is, in part, a result of this reality. But where did all of this come from?

It all came from the synthesis of thought, choice, and action. The child picking up a toy, driven by curiosity, altered her reality, physically moving something as well as making a new entry in her brain, an entry that may influence her future reality. The two warring nations, driven by complex social and psychological phenomena, decide their future would benefit from the destruction of the other. Political forces, another manifestation of psychosocial reality; emotion, technology, ideologies like nationalism and ethnocentrism--all manifestations of psychosocial reality--merge to create a situation where people’s lives end or are drastically altered and the entire history of the world is changed.

This reality is within our control and it is no less real or significant than the physical, empirical reality that would exist without a human presence.

Of course, it still isn’t a dream. We don’t get to bend space or time or force others to adopt our vision. We are not entirely free. But we are still so incredibly free. All that the human race has ever achieved, as individuals and as a whole, all of the triumphs and tragedies, the beauty and horror was people actively and willfully creating this reality--psychosocial reality.

Everyone realizes this on some level. It has been acknowledged in some form by the world’s great thinkers and artists and is a theme through all of human philosophy and religion. (For a great illustration of this, click the “theme” link and check out the dropdown menu “See the Variety of Names.”)

However, studies and understanding of psychosocial reality still go relatively unacknowledged as potentially useful and relevant, except in some abstract, maybe spiritual sense. The purpose of THEE is to make an understanding of psychosocial reality useful and valuable to us.

What does all of this freedom to choose mean to us, to you? What could a greater understanding of psychosocial reality mean in the “real” world? Let’s explore it together. I don’t want to start with conclusions but it can mean a new life or a better employment situation or a more enlightened society.