Find your pack!

Posted On June 21, 2006

I’ve been having a few issues with disapointment lately. I’ve felt like I don’t have the same kind of unconditional, trusting love for people that I used to have. I’ve mourned this like it was a death in the family. An old friend that kept me grounded and hopeful. Gone.
But then I realized that there is a conflict of interest in our society today. People are born to this world with the same instincts any other person was born with. What separates us? Is it money? Interests? Beliefs? Religion? Race? Sex?
Then it hit me as I was looking at my dog. It’s the myth of independence. We are born pack animals, yet aspire to “do it by ourselves.” We yearn for love and companionship, a purpose and a role in the world. Why is it that we think we can accomplish all this on our own?
We then feel betrayed. Like that highschooler, so bitter about the “clicks” we don’t belong to. We feel unsatisfied at work, like we were never meant to do whatever it is to make ends meet. We feel stuck, alone, unhappy, scared. We start to hate what we don’t understand. We try to justify our alienated selves by blaming those that don’t appear as we do.
Grocery stores, television, internet, cars… it appears as if we don’t have to work together to make it in this life. But, look a little closer, and we do. It’s all we know how to do. No wonder the suffering in this place. We’ve forgotten that we have an intrinsic need to belong. To help each other. To nurture and respect the world around us.
So yes. I’m disapointed. I’m also hopeful that I can continue to love the world and the people I don’t understand by trying to quench my thirst for belonging. I am not angry at the individuals that hurt me. I am unsatisfied. I need my pack.