A while back, when rid­ing the wave of insom­nia, I debat­ed about the mean­ing of life. Since I have been think­ing about con­flict, and strife in life late­ly it has caused me to think about it some more. We, or at least I, so often hear about how the world should be. The world should be a per­fect place, where there is not hate, or greed, or hunger. But how does that fit in with what peo­ple think about our pur­pose in incarnating?

Some peo­ple think we are here to make the world a bet­ter place. Espe­cial­ly where I spend so much time work­ing with ani­mal and envi­ron­men­tal char­i­ties. But we can’t fix the world if there isn’t any­thing wrong with it, now can we? Of course if the world were per­fect we would­n’t have to try and make it bet­ter, and could instead focus on some­thing else when we incar­nate. Like maybe learning.

Except…grow

We don’t learn any­thing when stuff is easy, when things hap­pen with no chal­lenge. We have to strug­gle to learn and to grow. Ease is the ene­my of growth, of expan­sion, of learn­ing. When things suck, when they hurt, when life is at its most dif­fi­cult that is when we learn the most. But don’t get all douchey about it. If I hear one more per­son preach­ing, sound­ing holi­er than thou about how their chal­lenges made them grow I might actu­al­ly be sick. For God­dess sake, speak like a nor­mal human being.

Then there is my per­son­al favorite, incar­na­tion as spring break. Of course like I men­tioned in the post on con­flict, where is the fun in a life of ease and pre­dictabil­i­ty? What can we enjoy when there isn’t a lit­tle dra­ma and excite­ment? Don’t get me wrong, I love to go hik­ing, and play with my dog. Both things are enjoy­able, but the times I remem­ber the most are the times that I got lost in the woods, the times I took a fall, the times that Vivre acci­den­tal­ly bit me, or near­ly took my legs out from under me. The best trips I’ve tak­en I bro­ken down, or got­ten lost, or paid $20.00 for a park­ing spot.

So if we can’t make the world bet­ter with­out the world being bro­ken. If our learn­ing and expe­ri­ences are ham­pered by lack of strug­gle and con­flict then once again, why do we think that the world should be easy and perfect?