It starts with rumbles and growls, the kind known as borborygmi in medic jargon. These are the sounding calls of a hungry belly, just about the nicest it gets when time is due for a meal.
When the belly is done pleading, things might get a little ‘hangry’. Hunger pangs begin to bite. The belly more or less lets itself be panged just to have your attention.
In case hunger pangs don’t work, the self serving belly will incite the head to throw in some migraine. Then you might start to realize that you need to feed.
If the belly could speak, then at that moment, it would be saying something like this:
“Do I have your attention now? Will you feed me now, huh!?”
That’s one of the human conditions. We are in constant need to be fed, and it’s amazing, yet appalling just how our bodies are committed to serving the belly’s need.
The urge
But something greater is at work here, driving the entire body to seek and devour anything edible.
It’s the urge to feed. It drives every one of creation’s living – plants and animals alike.
Grass will shoot from the ground headed high up to tap into the sun’s light, while still reaching underground to feed on water.
A level higher on the chain, grazers like the East African Wildebeests will devour grass in their millions, and once it’s depleted, the urge will drive them across the dangerous Mara river into Serengeti’s greener fields.
Thanks to the urge, we have the eighth world wonder to ourselves.
Contemplating on this urge leads to more mystery on the meaning of life.
Guzzlers of energy
A close examination of everything (matter) reveals that for any meaningful work to be done, an energy resource has to be consumed. Thus an insatiable thirst for energy runs across the board in the entire universe.
Cars won’t move without burning gas, horses won’t gallop without filling up on stable feed, and even the huge glaring ball of light that is our sun won’t shine a beam without its innate, humongous supply of hydrogen fuel.
Everything appears to be guzzling on energy.
The urge to feed is just a response to the ever beckoning void of energy in us and so to set the record straight – energy, not money, makes the world go round.
Is Energy all we need?
So if energy is this one thing that we must have to function, and its supply is plentiful to gratify all demands, why aren’t we able to live as indefinitely human as possible?
Can energy be the one and only pertinent force dictating the extent to which we outlive our potentials?
Can we say that we have it all; if we have all the energy we needed?
No. Unfortunately, human life is an intricate balance of many needs, and energy is only required for the most basic – the bodily or physiological needs; simply to keep our hearts beating.
Even with a good supply of energy, we are still severely constrained by weariness, disease and aging, only to mention but a few.
Intelligent yet fragile
We are delicate vessels of flesh, bone and muscle, carrying and converting energy. Our fibers are woven so perfectly we earned the badge ‘most intelligent species’. But even with this honor, we are far from perfect; limited by our own vessels.
These vessels are stricken by weariness, fatigue, sickness, aging and ultimately the end of life itself. You would think that wearing the badge of most intelligent cuts us some slack; that we would be advanced beyond the mundane constraints of life.
But guess what: every form of life, advanced like humanity or savage like wild animals – the fate is one – we carry magnificent yet fragile vessels, constantly in need of high maintenance. We have to feed, shelter, clean, groom, treat, entertain and rest them.
Question: Is that all there is to life? Just a maintenance rota for our bodies? Isn’t there a higher, meaningful purpose?
Vanity
For a moment, I was lost in thought searching for a meaning, a reason for the things we do to maintain our humanness.
I stared into the plate of rice and peas (minji) before me. Migraines and hunger pangs sure bit hard, but I admit I was a little angry that I was just human, that I had to eat and eat again after eating.
Of course I was going through a rough patch, otherwise why would I think so ill of eating?
But after all the thought, I too came to a conclusion. Like the wise man, I saw vanity in the human condition.
Man without purpose is vanity. He is a bunch of flesh, bone and muscle, slowly eating into himself until he’s no more.
Only purpose makes it all worthwhile.
But what greater purpose could there be, than that ascribed by the originator of the fragile vessels we are?
Would a fragile vessel know what is best for itself, considering it’s fragile by all means? Wouldn’t its designer, exceeding in all understanding of its making know best?
All in all, life is worth a purpose, a greater purpose beyond our vanity.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecclesiastes 12:12,13 (ESV)
Thank you for reading.
[Featured Image Credits – wayhomestudio on Freepik]
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