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What kinds of questions can we ask in life? As children, questions can be so deeply insightful or challenging as young minds attempt to make sense of all they’re soaking up and drinking in. As if the mind simply spreads into its environment, questioning everything it might find there to establish the words, the meaning and significance of it all.

Over time, that insistent curiosity often seems overtaken by “how things are” – the desire to make the best of things, fit in and not be left behind. Social or practical pressures and incentives perhaps breaking the spirit of questioning. As if we’d rather appear confident, impressive and sure of ourselves than expose any uncertainty by asking others or seeking more of an answer.

As if the demands of society – the relationships and expectations – overshadow the needs which fill it. Like the very human need to understand, to believe, to have faith in what we’re doing, why it matters and where it leads. If what distinguishes “us” is the capacity for thought, aren’t questions some of our most important tools? This sense in which we can examine the thinking behind our lives.

If we’re here to learn what it means to be human – then, for our lives to inscribe that meaning on the world around us through all our words, choices and commitments – don’t we need to understand? To see what everything means, what it is we’re really “saying” and where those inevitable consequences will be felt.

Otherwise, trusting others have that safely in hand, aren’t we acting blindly? Agents embracing courses of action without fully bearing the responsibility of foreseeing what it will mean for the world surrounding us and all those filling it. As if, despite lacking the insight of understanding, we might simply plough on regardless.

Where exactly are we placing our trust? That those around us – now or back when the patterns of thinking or organisational systems governing our lives were set in motion – saw that bigger picture and have everyone’s best interests at heart? That this vast human experiment of “how we’ll live on this planet” is somehow going to head in wise directions without our questioning involvement?

Who’s to say, really? Sometimes it seems unlikely we’ll ever get the truth. And that, standing back in the hope of understanding, the world would quickly push us to the wayside while others ran ahead. As if we’ve no choice but to jump in and make the most of “this”. That we “must” get on board and perhaps only raise our doubts from the inside as we’re hurtling toward a questionable destination.

Does it matter what our lives get swept into? All the assumptions and foredrawn conclusions hemming us in. The unnegotiable paths to walk, conversations to have and parameters to accept. Society may “always” be some form of brainwashing or coercion, but isn’t it important that we hold to the essence of being human and not let our lives become part of something we’d rather they weren’t?

Writing for this site, I’ve tended to ask myself at these regular intervals where this is headed – checking in that things haven’t gone off track or wandered down some dark alley too removed from reality to be of use. Because, genuinely, I write as much for myself as any audience, as my way of trying to make sense of life and find the threads or pathways within it.

Perhaps it’s this notion of having a worldview? All the ideas, thoughts and beliefs we have in mind about the nature of reality and our place within it. This sense in which we all carry a world in our heads; one that may or may not relate that truthfully or helpfully to the one that’s actually around us.

It must “matter”, the ideas we have in mind. Doesn’t our pre-emptive sense of understanding, in a way, determine both what we’ll see and how we’ll interpret it? Our reactions or responses essentially flowing out of the way we’ve already learnt to see things. Responses that, in turn, presumably shape reality through the attitudes we cast back out there.

Isn’t it true that our presence in the world changes it? That everything arriving on our doorstep leaves, in some way, transformed through how we’ve interacted with it – every person, object or idea we come across having been treated with respectful interest or casual disregard, depending on how much we value all the experiences of life.

Do we realise that all we do matters? That every interaction speaks volumes about the values we hold dear, principles we’re bringing to life, and extent to which we care for everything in the world that’s not us. In a way, our lives can be seen as a reflection of our ideas: all we’ve learnt or been told, everything we’ve come to see as valuable, informing how we choose to be.

As thinking beings, isn’t thought the source of our independence? Our capacity to reason, remember, and form decisions effectively creating the foundation for our being in the world: we can know where we stand and, based on that, decide how we’ll live. Isn’t there incredible freedom and responsibility to being in charge of ourselves this way?

If the thoughts we have in mind – all the facts, figures, theories, sensitivities, assumptions – inform our choices for how to act, then don’t they matter a great deal? Approaching the world of thought with a sense that it might be a significant creative force in all our lives might be a strange way of looking at life, but, if it’s truly how things work, maybe it’s wise not to ignore it.

Which, coming back to my reflections on this writing project, reaches this point of wondering what exactly we’re doing here: how we’re using our powers for thought; how much we understand of life; and how well it’s working out in terms of the patterns emerging within modern society. If we believe it all matters, might that not make a considerable difference?

Still, with this writing project, I find myself wondering what it is. At times, like now, I step back and see it as this strangely self-assured questioning of the things that make up our lives, and wonder “who I am” to be writing it all. But then, who’s to say I’m “not” to ask such questions? Is it not the human place to question, review, integrate, evaluate, and attempt to synthesise the meaning of their choices into a reasonably coherent whole?

There may not be an answer to that. Who’s to say what our role is in life? We’re thinking beings, self-aware and able to see meaning behind what surrounds us, but the right use of that intelligence isn’t entirely clear. Are we better off deferring the thinking to those “in charge” – specialists in their fields – or might we expect their guidance be presented in ways we can decide upon as mere citizens, consumers, members of humanity?

So then, I suppose this project is simply me asking about things and seeking to consolidate my own thoughts on life. It’s really a personal journey of attempting to find my own bearings in relation to all I’ve been told, experienced, and see happening around me. It’s trying to pull those threads together, dig at the roots of our thinking, and understand what modern life might mean.

But that’s not to say it’s intended to be cold, distant, aloof in its deconstruction of life; hopefully it comes across that I care deeply for individuals, their experiences, and how society and human relationships impact us all. My concern, beneath the at times philosophical or simplistic pondering, is perhaps about what life makes of us and we, in turn, make of it. We might look at trends, at the forces playing out within our lives, but nestled within it all are people and that fact surely matters.

Of course, it’s hard to look at systemic realities or challenges while bearing in mind it’s all made up of and for the sake of humanity. The “bigger picture” of society’s statistics and projections can sometimes drown out the everyday reality of our existence. We can plan on that level, proposing solutions or passing judgements, but all those things “pass through” human lives and convey messages as to the perceived worth of those lives.

Modern life is seeming this strange test of all it means to be human. The accumulated insight, understanding and ingenuity of past generations having been placed in our hands, we can now rework “life on earth” to this unprecedented degree. We can remove many age-old limitations of time, space, capacity, and develop these global, automated solutions that rapidly impact their human, natural and social surroundings. It’s quite amazing, but surely can’t – or maybe, shouldn’t – be undertaken without a high sense of ethics and responsibility.

Human existence is this incredible opportunity, but what we make of it and the attitude with which we approach life and one another seem, now, perhaps more important than ever.

Having worked my way through the first year’s planning for this blog, at times I still find myself wondering what EbbSpark actually is. I mean, seeing as I came up with the idea and clearly felt it worthwhile pursuing, there must be some sense of what this is about and why it might be of value for individuals or society. And there is in a way, although it may not always be entirely clear.

That first year mainly served, in my eyes, to stake out some ground for a conversation to take place. Working with the Themes I developed initially, my posts have attempted to look deeply at some issues that seem important while also looking for connections or common principles between those more specific interests or concerns.

Some of the ideas that came up towards the close of the year began pulling that together more clearly for me: those posts that sought a more comprehensive view of society, community, and our place within the world (see Notes One); and, very much building on that, those posts that looked more to our role or responsibility in understanding and contributing to that world we all share (Notes Two).

Which, thinking about it, may be what this writing most easily boils down to: the sense of trying to understand both the complex nature of reality and the importance of our position and participation within that. “That” being all those settings, all those choices we face and decisions we make in how to act and relate to one another and all we find around us.

And that also tends at times to dip into musings around thought, reality, consciousness, and other more philosophical concerns I personally find quite intriguing and motivating (Notes Three). That undertone of trying to map things out in the realm of thought is, I suppose, another fairly central part of this project.

Then, in terms of why I might consider all that worthwhile, there’s simply the fact that I believe all of this matters. Understanding the society and the world we live within, seeking to comprehend others’ experiences of that, trying to craft constructive ways forward from where we might find ourselves, and believing in the importance of every human life.

For me, as intelligent beings we are able to understand and find reasonable responses to what we see; and as compassionate ones we are also hopefully able to reach mutual understanding and cooperation. However difficult those paths might be I simply don’t believe one life is worth more than any other, but that we need to work our way onwards together.

What that might mean on a personal or social level is far from straightforward, as modern life often seems as complex as it does precarious, but I’m not convinced there’s another way to address things. As explored in “Ecological Intelligence”, “yes and no are the two most powerful words in the vocabulary of a species that has become capable of deciding what to do about its future.”

Notes and References:

Note 1: Human nature and community life
Note 1: Economy & Humanity
Note 1: Nature speaks in many ways, do we listen?
Note 2: The web and the wider world
Note 2: Ideas around education & responsibility
Note 2: Whether there is hope for change
Note 2: Responsibility in shaping this reality
Note 3: David Bohm, thoughts on life
Note 3: What is real?

I’m not sure how you will have found me, but I like that you have so thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope it’s of interest.

Originally I had planned simply to just start with the content I have prepared, but decided instead to begin here by offering some context. Clearly there is a lot going on in the world at the moment and while I always intended to steer clear of topical issues and talk more generally, in the end I saw more value in addressing a few deeper issues first before reverting to my original plan. So, to begin there will be a few posts about change and modern times but then the focus will shift back to the starting point of society and some of the things we seem to value and concern ourselves with.

To reiterate, in using the terms “we” or “our” I am referring to my own perspective within Western society and the UK in particular – language can be quite a stumbling block at times, but I trust that people from other backgrounds will be able to orientate themselves relative to my position as there’s really little other way for me to speak.

As outlined on the About and Themes pages, there is a fairly detailed plan for the path this writing will take over the next year as these ideas develop and weave their way. That all has to start somewhere, I suppose, and that place seems to be here.

Thanks again for reading, and I hope you check back to see where this is heading.