What is life? Simple but profound question. It’s been asked countless times and answered in countless ways. People write books about it, teach about it, hypothesize about it. I’m no different in sharing my own thoughts about it. One of the masses with a pin prick concept of a thought. I truly cannot articulate to any degree what life is but at least I ask and at least I ponder and, that, is a but a fraction of the complexity of the question and answer. We are born and are one of the most vulnerable species on this planet. We can’t walk, we can’t talk, we can’t take care of ourselves one iota compared to how most mammals exist in and on this treadmill of life. Most creatures are able to stand, to walk, to swim within seconds, minutes or hours of being born. Not humans. We come out of the womb solely dependent and thus begins a cycle that gets repeated over and over through time. We grow and learn quick in the timeframe of a human life. A childhood of dreams and fascinations, explorations and adventures pass by in a blink of an eye. Then it’s onto school as our big brains continue to absorb the informational highway around us. But without even knowing and realizing it we have begun the treadmill of nullity. And therein lies a huge part of the crux.
Through circumstance, through history, through it all, we all are on the same treadmill of life. Rene Descartes quoted, “I think therefore I am.” And with our big brains we really do think. We create, we speak, and we solve complex problems. But in that we also create complex problems. So, I ask again, what is life? What is the point of being born, of growing, of learning; to living life out on this planet only to die in a relatively short time span of all things considered. How many of us live in our passions, how many of us find our true calling, how many of us seek a deeper wisdom and awareness and how many of us continue on life’s treadmill to nullity. We go to school, we get a job, we get married, we buy a house, we have children, we retire. Step after step after step. Where did we go? To the same place we started and yet we only assimilated that we were actually going anywhere. Not that those things aren’t important or valuable in the limited number of years we experience them but what if? What if we could step off the treadmill of nullity and truly look around? To know, to understand, to truly explore and pilgrimage a different life, a different way of being. It seems many don’t want to take the step off, they want to just continue on the path of the treadmill going nowhere. That’s what we do, that’s what we know, that’s what we live. A treadmill of nullity.
Too many live life out this way. Including myself. It’s easier, it’s mind numbing, it’s a cycle of existence that has played this hand for thousands of years, if not millions. A treadmill of nullity, a train bound to nowhere, all dressed up and nowhere to go. And we all buy into it. At this point in my life, this is an albatross around my neck. I know the difference; I am aware, but getting off this rat wheel seems and feels like an impossibility. I push the buttons, I go faster, I push the buttons, I go slower but yet one step after another after another and I find, I am still in the same place. Maybe it would be better not to be aware. To just be another walking dead drudging along, doing the same Ol’ thing; being born, think that we’re living, and yet just walking to our own demise day after day, year after year, until there are no years and no time left. This treadmill makes me very sad. A treadmill to nullity is life of no existence and that in itself is killing me. What a vicious cycle. Maybe it’s hell on earth. Hell isn’t some realm of fire and ash, gnashing of teeth. Hell is trying to fight against gravity on a gravity filled planet. Hell is knowing you’re on a treadmill of nullity but can’t find a way off of it. Just hit the power button, just step off is like saying hold your breath for five minutes. We all think we can until we run out of breath within the first minute. We all must breathe as a natural part of life, but sadly, the treadmill of nullity feels natural because we have allowed this to condition us to its existence. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can be aware, we can learn, and we can train ourselves to step off and take a different pathway. The choice is ours; the choice has always been ours. But first one has to be aware they are on the treadmill to begin with. It’s that thing under our feet, trudging us along, step after step, it’s ominous motor humming in the background lulling us to sleepwalk throughout our years. It’s there, this treadmill of nullity. So, now you know, what are you going to do about it? Because this thing called life is an important thing not to waste doing nothing, don’t ya think?
To See Or Not To See 