What if our life’s ultimate goal is to return to nature?
We start from nature (when we are born, we are not yet dressed up in clothes, our egos, social obligations etc), and as we grow up we try to get out from the force of nature (by gaining intelligence) while we are on a long journey of looking for who we truly are (searching for our nature).
In other words, nature is our start and our end.
Our life might be to become our nature itself (to be the state of our birth), and it is for this reason we have our own interests, hobbies, opinions, egos and we hate it when others deny who you are. We seek respect for ourselves from others and the idea of individual rights are cherished because “be myself” is the universal underlying desire of human beings.
However, our journey of becoming who we are is a roundabout trip. As we grow up, we acquire knowledge and experience which construct our intelligence, and this intelligence sometimes interfere our journey and make our goal (be who you are) vague. For example ;
- you pretend to appreciate Shakespeare when what you actually prefer is comic books, in order to be respected (your ego)
- you want to wear sweatpants but you have to wear uncomfortable suit, because you work in an office (your social responsibility)
- you stick with your opinion when you know you are the one who is wrong, because you simply don’t like the other person (rebellion)
However roundabout our journey may be, there is always an eagerness to becoming who we really are. It might even be the purpose of our life. As Aristotle writes,
“…and the nature of a thing is its end. For what each thing is when fully developed, we call its nature”
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