From my perspective, the greatest achievement of the Baby Boomer generation is that they changed the vocabulary of capitalism. They did not change capitalism… in fact, capitalism changed them. Like it does everyone. (Capitalism kicked their butt, to be honest.) They just used a bunch of touchy-feely words and concepts to justify and rationalize their material, capitalist pursuits. They found a way to be capitalists without feeling dirty about it. Not that this is wrong at all. It has actually laid the groundwork for more substantive changes… that may or may not take hold.

I am thinking of this because just overheard a conversation. It was a conversation between two people about finding their purpose in life. Their words and descriptions were all spiritual, and larger than life. The nuts and bolts of it however, was material… capitalistic… simply about finding a product they wanted to sell. I bit my tongue and refrained from interrupting. It is not an easy thing to find a product we are willing to throw our energy behind, but to say that the “universe” or God has, in this product, shown us our purpose in life… is missing the point of building awareness. Dulling the knife, as it were.

It is our environment that drives our sense of purpose. If we were locked in a cage, then our purpose would be to get out of that cage. If we were on a stage, then we would feel the need to entertain. If we lived in an agrarian community with no modern technology or amenities, then our purpose would be to grow food, hunt, and provide shelter for our family. If we were a banker, our purpose would be to manage currency. A politician in Washington, then it would be to manage opinions.

It is true that we have adapted the power to migrate and experiment with different environments to see which one feels right to us. And, it is completely outstanding that more and more people are using emotional awareness to navigate and make decisions. But I wouldn’t go so far as to ascribe this drifting and experimenting to any higher power. Consciously elevated and more comprehensive… sure. Inspired by God or the Spirits… not really.

In all the stories of religion, the characters that God influences and manipulates are miserable. They give the clear impression that they would rather be doing anything else. This is because God, or the universe, compels those people to do things that go against their perception of the environment. Noah built a boat for no apparent reason at the time. Suffering ridicule, anger, and confusion. He did this because, according to the story, the spiritual presence of God changed his environment; altering his physical, emotional, and logical perception.

To be clear, this is not something we can control. We cannot control our environments,.. especially our spiritual one. We can only react, or respond. Many a person has isolated themselves out in the wilderness in an effort to connect to the spiritual world, only to become confused or disappointed. What they usually come away with is a better awareness of the environments they were trying to block out. How they interpret the experience is another story, depending on their maturity and frame of reference.

The upshot of all this is that if it makes sense to you, it is not God or the universe telling you what to do. You just drifted around enough to come across something that you feel comfortable with. Which is awesome… run with it. (If, however, you are compelled to do something that makes no sense at all, and you keep doing it despite everyone laughing at you for it,.. and it does not break any of the Commandments… then, maybe,.. you are being influenced from in one way or another.)

Many of our problems are caused by our use of capitalism, but it would be impossible and unnecessary to end capitalism. (It would even hinder progress to try.) We just need to strive to include more information in our decision process, from all of our overlapping environments, both seen and unseen, in an honest and pragmatic way.