Wow! Super indepth!!! Thank you for all your research and efforts and for sharing it. Your opening question was an eye catcher for sure. And I understand the way in which you mean it. The assumption that we all seem to share is that all the things you mention food, water, shelter is what we need to exist and that we must somehow obtain these things through our own efforts ( or the efforts of others ) by whatever means. Yes? However, and this took me awhile to get to but being as I just came from Divine Liturgy for The Feast of the Transfiguration, and if I take the time to reflect on things from a spiritual point of view which unfortunately I don’t do enough but just sitting in the sun drinking my coffee peacefully so it occurred to me that no actually those things are not in fact the essence of our existence and those things in fact we do not have to obtain to exist. I think if you really do back in history that is the initial lie we accepted, or at least a form of that type of thinking……. I could go on but there are so many threads to this to explore and it will take me awhile to work it out for myself and don’t know if I can explain it all logically but you can sort or see what I’m getting at right? I mean why do we exist? Who called us into existence? Honestly, I think all these “ physical means of existence” are important clearly needful but not the most necessary …
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment Holly, I appreciate you engaging.
I actually agree with you that there are two different questions hidden inside the title. One is the spiritual question of why we exist at all and what it truly means to exist. The other, which is the question I was trying to explore, is much more practical and historical: why do human beings have to pay for access to the basic conditions that sustain life, such as land, shelter, water and food, when every other species accesses them directly through nature.
You’re right that the title can lead readers toward the deeper philosophical question, and perhaps that’s something worth exploring in a future essay. This piece was really an attempt to trace how our relationship with the Earth’s resources changed over thousands of years, rather than to answer the question of existence itself.
I really appreciate you taking the time to think about it so deeply. 🙏🏻
I’m afraid I disagree with you. Water is not “free” for the deer. It has to make the effort to find the river or lake. If it can’t or won’t make the effort, it dies of thirst. Payment is an exchange of effort. I “pay” you by finding the river. You “pay” me by fashioning a scoop from leaves and bark so we can bring the water back to our young.
That’s a fair point, and I agree that every species must expend effort to survive. A deer still has to search for water, avoid predators and compete for resources. My argument isn’t that survival has ever been effortless.
The distinction I’m making is between effort and economic payment. A deer doesn’t have to go to Tesco to buy bottled water before it can drink. It doesn’t have to earn money first. Humans still work for survival, but access to many of the basic necessities of life now passes through economic and institutional systems that didn’t always exist. That’s the historical transition I was trying to explore.
Wow! Super indepth!!! Thank you for all your research and efforts and for sharing it. Your opening question was an eye catcher for sure. And I understand the way in which you mean it. The assumption that we all seem to share is that all the things you mention food, water, shelter is what we need to exist and that we must somehow obtain these things through our own efforts ( or the efforts of others ) by whatever means. Yes? However, and this took me awhile to get to but being as I just came from Divine Liturgy for The Feast of the Transfiguration, and if I take the time to reflect on things from a spiritual point of view which unfortunately I don’t do enough but just sitting in the sun drinking my coffee peacefully so it occurred to me that no actually those things are not in fact the essence of our existence and those things in fact we do not have to obtain to exist. I think if you really do back in history that is the initial lie we accepted, or at least a form of that type of thinking……. I could go on but there are so many threads to this to explore and it will take me awhile to work it out for myself and don’t know if I can explain it all logically but you can sort or see what I’m getting at right? I mean why do we exist? Who called us into existence? Honestly, I think all these “ physical means of existence” are important clearly needful but not the most necessary …
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment Holly, I appreciate you engaging.
I actually agree with you that there are two different questions hidden inside the title. One is the spiritual question of why we exist at all and what it truly means to exist. The other, which is the question I was trying to explore, is much more practical and historical: why do human beings have to pay for access to the basic conditions that sustain life, such as land, shelter, water and food, when every other species accesses them directly through nature.
You’re right that the title can lead readers toward the deeper philosophical question, and perhaps that’s something worth exploring in a future essay. This piece was really an attempt to trace how our relationship with the Earth’s resources changed over thousands of years, rather than to answer the question of existence itself.
I really appreciate you taking the time to think about it so deeply. 🙏🏻
I’m afraid I disagree with you. Water is not “free” for the deer. It has to make the effort to find the river or lake. If it can’t or won’t make the effort, it dies of thirst. Payment is an exchange of effort. I “pay” you by finding the river. You “pay” me by fashioning a scoop from leaves and bark so we can bring the water back to our young.
That’s a fair point, and I agree that every species must expend effort to survive. A deer still has to search for water, avoid predators and compete for resources. My argument isn’t that survival has ever been effortless.
The distinction I’m making is between effort and economic payment. A deer doesn’t have to go to Tesco to buy bottled water before it can drink. It doesn’t have to earn money first. Humans still work for survival, but access to many of the basic necessities of life now passes through economic and institutional systems that didn’t always exist. That’s the historical transition I was trying to explore.