IFAS Matters - January 2013

Posted on January 13, 2013, by Jack Payne

New Year, New Purpose

By the time you read this, we will be either over the financial cliff or just barely hanging on.

I think that most of us mark each New Year with a modicum of optimism and a conscious or subconscious resolution to be or do better than last year. This year, mine is an aspiration for myself and my fellow humans that can be summarized in Rodney King’s simplistic plea, “Can we all get along?”

I’m not sure why, but somehow King’s appeal has become an existential question, along with other “big questions” such as “What is the meaning of life?,” “What is my true nature?” and “What does the dryer do with my socks?”

These are the questions that strip away surface meaning and attempt to get to the core of what it means to be a human being. For instance, if being an athlete is what gives life meaning, what does life mean when it’s no longer feasible to be athlete?

So without sounding too ponderous, does a pervasive inability to get along suggest that tolerance, cooperation and the absence of malice — the core elements of getting along — are no longer prized as meaningful purposes? If so, I dread to think what’s taking their place.

Happy New Year!

-Jack

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