What
exactly is satisfaction? And from what well does it spring? Is true
satisfaction really attainable. Or is it like happiness, that elusive high you
chase and gain, only to lose and chase again? What is true satisfaction? Can it
like a retirement, be planned towards? Or is this an onion-like philosophical question
which leads towards a path of multiple question complexity?
Is it being happy with what you have? If so, at what point do we distinguish satisfaction from complacency? And really, what is complacency and why is it given such a negative tint. If complacency is going with the flow and accepting things as they are, then with what justification do we accuse someone who refuses to strive? Who is "satisfied” with things as they are? I ask honestly.
Is it doing what you love? The “starving artist” personae is perhaps the most clichéd description that dangles as a question in my head. Is a hungry artist satisfied? Why do governments keep losing social workers to the more commercially fulfilling private sectors? Or am I asking too simplistic a question? Can I be satisfied with what I do yet unsatisfied with what I get? Or satisfied with what I get yet unsatisfied in what I do? Does a balance exist?
Is a part of it found in financial security? If so, how then does our chase for this arm of satisfaction
famously imprison us? Why then do we become murderers-in-waiting at the slight
sense of another who we sense may threaten our position? And if some form of
satisfaction may be gained from financial security, at what point can we say we
are truly secure? Is there a numerical value to it?
It seems that our push for people to be more, aim for more, aspire to more,
sings out - strive, strive, strive!
I ask, “to what end?” And I ask this with the utmost honesty, as I really do
not know. Perhaps, this will sail down to join the long list of questions whose
answers will never be known. Perhaps I will stumble upon the answer as the
numbers tumble upon my age.
The Buddhist philosophy tries explain a source of
satisfaction as rejecting the lure of ownership. Realizing nothing as truly yours. While on one hand, I think they have this locked down, on the other hand, I think about Tibet's relentless strive towards independence and wonder. And so, while I like its theory, I question its practicality. Is satisfaction truly attainable? Or are we doomed to keep
striving? Striving towards x.
