'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

The Importance Of Being

Relationships are incidental, work is incidental, being is not.Most of our day-to-day involvements are split between relationships and work, and up until very recently, this was necessary for all but the most rigorously spiritual of beings.

What is surprising is how the wealthy seem to have stuck to this relationship/work regimen, when their money has freed them from the necessity of following that path. Those that break away for this stereotype seem in fact to come from all backgrounds, and have many different philosophies. They are proportionally few in number, and often they reject their family and friends or a ‘steady job’, but not always both.

The merit that society attaches to a person being ‘hard working’ and ‘popular’ obviously maintains the status quo, but is overworked to the extreme, and in it’s present form is nothing short of insidious. A moment’s thought must be given to why we are here and what we are for. This can only be given perspective by looking at where we have come from, what we are doing, and why?

It is often said that ‘the best things in life are free’, but it seems that the best things are not as important to us as the things that cost, be they children, houses, cars, white goods, etc. I hear you say, ‘But children are the best thing.’ Well maybe they are, but you can’t possibly say that they are free. They are free to make, although people often spend a ton of money setting up for the event, but they certainly are not free to have around. Children are part and parcel of life, but they are incidental to your being; yes, as is the rest of your family, your friends and your work.

I am not advocating some kind of a spiritual solution, but I do see that our social environment is beginning to threaten the personal freedom that we have fought so long and hard for. Whereas communism was something to be battled against, Chinese totalitarianism, for example seems something to be almost admired and it is easy to see left wing political thought in the west looking over it’s shoulder somewhat enviously at a structure which allows those in charge to get on with things without the inefficiency and bother of the democratic process. I would also accuse the most capitalist, the most democratic of the world’s nations of turning both rich and poor into hamsters on a wheel. Technology is what makes all this control possible and it recognises no political boundaries.

No, it is not enough to be hardworking and popular. It is not enough for anyone’s life to be reduced to an education, a job a family and so many weeks of vacation a year. If you think that is why you are here and what you are for, then I am truly sad, not just for you but for all those who you probably think you are doing so well by.

It is also not about adventure, and the wind in your hair. It is more about who you are, as ‘The Who’ asked. If you don’t know, it is time you found out. Be yourself, know yourself, have time for yourself, positively indulge yourself, be someone special or be no one at all.      

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