What Drives You? - Comments

What a very subjective question! It's not really something I've ever really considered, to be honest. There are plenty of driving forces behind each of my aspirations - my belief in the sanctity of childhood and my desire to protect and educate children, for example, allowing me to want to be a teacher - but as to something which drives me to simply exist, I don't think I've ever really considered it.

Religion, in its most structured and dictatorial form, has never particularly interested me. I have never felt any desire to subscribe to the values or moral codes of any kind of institution, and so would describe myself as non-religious. As far as a higher power is concerned? I honestly couldn't say. When I was younger I claimed to be atheist, then I was forced in to an Anglican conversion program and came out as an agnostic with a head full of flagellatory crap like "it is selfish not to believe in a higher power than humanity". For a while after I left I thought there must be some sort of spiritual presence in every moment, and I was very taken by the Islamic view of the air being filled with angels. For a while I defined this presence solely by nature, but nowadays I don't necessarily feel there is any kind of omnipotent 'presence' at all.

I've never really subscribed to the concept of predetermined destiny, just because I felt that it discouraged active thought and progress. I feel that in order to have control of my life, I have to be making conscious decisions which make me think about the consequences of each possible path I am offered, and that any belief in a predetermined destiny would take the conscious thought out of every decision. I'm sure that if I believed in any kind of ultimate destiny, I would spend my days doing absolutely nothing.

I suppose now, being in the middle of these exams, my main drive is simply to finish the task at hand as best as I can in order to achieve the goals I have set for myself. Beyond that I suppose I am driven to live by the moral codes I have set myself, to live a whole life I can be proud of. And I guess in the end all of this is a search for love, whether that be my love of another person, the love of my career, the love of my planet or creating love and passion for things within other people. My biggest fear for myself is apathy, and I suppose that drives me as well. It's all just the quest for something intangible in the end, I guess.

This is very true. I have been thinking about it alot lately, I just dont seem to find anything else that I can fit myself into. Maybe I need to go on another bushwalk and do some more soul searching.

Interesting, i can very much understand your viewpoint. I consider myself pantheist, personally, so nature plays a large rule within my defining beliefs and ideals as well.

One thing that i would like to bring to your attention though, there is a time for nature, and a time for progress.

Well yes, I mean I am a wicca, so for me, nature is god. Nature dictates my life pretty much. I dont know, nature is something i can see and touch...to me it seems more of a logical thing to worship, rather than what some people call "god"

Then isnt it possible that nature is simple the "higher power"? That nature isnt just firing off rapid unconscious commands of our existence much like a computer at start-up?

Well, my driving force in my life is my daughter. I want to be someone that she holds dear and believes in. I want to instill my morals in her, but give her, her own space to make some of her own. I'd like her to grow up to be like me, open minded, and self assured. I'd like her to question things, like I did. I'd like her to think that there is no higher being watching over us, although I know her belief in god will ultimately be her decision, I have been guiding her even since she was born to treasure nature, and realise that ultimately, it's nature that we should fear and respect, not some higher being. If that makes sense.