Have you ever travelled on a bus, train, or been the passenger in a car, and just stared out of the window and looked at all the houses and wondered who lives there. What happens behind those doors, and what makes those people tick? I regularly do, and because of this, recently on Threads I posed a question to void that would help provide some view into these worlds.
I wanted to understand the reason why people continue to move forward in life, what is their driver, their why, what drives them to get up each morning. Just to provide a small insight into what makes other people tick. Providing a small view into understanding the world from other point of views.
As with everything I post I didn’t expect the level of response that I did get. However, with 276 replies over a couple of days, the comments were a range of emotions that provided different perspectives on how some people get value out of existence.
Replies ranged from heartfelt to funny and a mixture of emotions in between. Highlighting how we all view the world from different angles, but at the same time how many of us have similar opinions and takes. With a few common themes becoming apparent.
When posing questions out to the ether on social media you quite quickly identify how people interpret things differently, or how they only digest part of a post. For this post the final question appeared to resonate in a more simple and immediate way with many and led to some amusing comments. “What drives you to get up each morning?” led to some good responses with regards to bladder control and the need to pee:
Pets and animals were also common reason for many. Either out of love or hunger our furry friends like us to get up early in the morning:
When asking a question such as this, it can lead some to dark places. Sometimes the need for a reason, a why is important and without it people can struggle. Sometime the darkness can remove the joy and it’s hard to see anything but the shadows. Because of this, a few replies were difficult to read and highlight the struggle that life can be:
For some the struggles they had seen were a reason to push on. Even though they had experienced great pain in their life, they weren’t ready to let that drag them down. Seeing the time they have had as a gift that others have not had the luck to experience:
Being constantly enveloped in darkness myself, with an existential viewpoint that can struggle to see the point or the reason, I found myself surprised and enlightened to see that most of the responses were positive.
So many people found joy in the simple things in life. Going for walks and enjoying nature. Enjoying their morning coffee and watching the world go by. And most of all enjoying the company of family and friends. Especially children or grandchildren. Bringing happiness and joy to children was a major driver for many in their ‘why’. Finding happiness in bringing and raising new life into this world and its madness.
Maybe children and the continuation of life is the most obvious of reason. A pre-defined nature within all animals to contribute to the continuation and overall survival of the species. This is obviously not the same for all of us, but it is pre-programed into many of us. I myself see my family and my kids as a primary driver to keep moving forward. Watching them grow and learn the world around them is both a challenging and rewarding journey to take.
Questioning existence and the ‘meaning of life’ is not a new thing. Existentialism has been around for ever since humans could think and became self-aware, gaining real momentum in the 19th and 20th century in Europe. Becoming a philosophical movement that probes themes like freedom, choice, and the quest for meaning amid absurdity. Existentialism's influence span’s philosophy, literature, psychology, and theology, offering insights into the complexities of human existence and the pursuit of authenticity in a world fraught with uncertainty and ambiguity.
This philosophical aspect was brought to life by the most popular response to my original post:
Unfortunately, I do not know who wrote the original ‘note’ but it does make you ponder. Do we need a reason, a why, a purpose? Is just being here enough? Is our intelligence our own worst enemy when it comes existence, looking for reason where there none. I doubt a rabbit or whale wakes in the morning and asks why, they just do, they just exist. Maybe we should take the same viewpoint. We just exist and that is all there is to it, and in the blink of an eye it will be gone so we should just enjoy it, nurture it, and relish in it whilst we can.
Cover photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash