All we need is good health and good relationships.

At the end of the day, all we really need from life is good health and healthy relationships with people we love. Good health is not a given for humans. To be healthy, we need good nutrition, we need safe and comfortable housing, we need access to healthcare, we need a stable and peaceful environment (mental health is part of health). All of that requires that we have financial and social support structures. None of this happens in isolation — we can’t all grow our own food and perform self-surgery while building comfortable environments to live in. All those needs require strong social ties inside a stable and supportive community. As they say: people need people. We are not solitary animals. And even with all those needs met, we have to have strong, loving attachments to those we are particularly close to in addition to a stable, supportive community to live in.

Human societies share responsibilities. And the more complex our needs and desires become, the more diverse expertise and cooperation are needed. It takes decades to become an experienced doctor. And while those individuals are in training, society needs to provide for them so that they can focus on their final goal of delivering health to their group. The larger the group, the more doctors we need. This is true for other professions and crafts. What advanced civilization is supposed to grant us is the ability to pursue our talents in various fields, even if the “deliverables” in the end will be stories or art or dance. Humans have been creating art for as long as we’ve been human. And art is all about humanity and human relations. And as much as we have these ideas about “starving artists”, those ideas are just plain stupid. We all benefit from art. Art is the first step to dreaming up big ideas that advance our civilization as a whole. The wealth of our civilization should be allocated to art as much as all the other desirable pursuits. And as a group, we get to decide which pursuits are desirable at this point in our time continuum. Our choice and decisions would drift and flow the more we learn and the more art we produce.

When I say “art”, I mean it in its widest possible interpretation. I don’t see science and art as fundamentally different. They are the same — both arise from internally driven passions of individuals, who “have” to do what they do to be whole. I remember as a kid, my mouth would water every time I thought of painting (I used to suck the tips of my brushes to shape them). It was a physical response to a desire to create. I still get antsy when I haven’t made things for a while. I dream stories. I see images in my mind in full detail with full blown color and sound. If I was ever banned from making by some life circumstances, I know that I would wither, I wouldn’t be me anymore. I believe every human has some passion that makes them whole as individuals. Together, it’s a kaleidoscope of talent, moving our civilization forward. The more we can unleash this potential, the greater benefit to all of us.

Lately, we’ve been squeezing down the resources available to individuals to develop and pursue their passions. This mainly comes from extreme concentration of wealth to the top 0.001% of the human population. But all the money in the world can’t buy infrastructure necessary to deliver medicine, food, weather data, and information if it is all controlled by just one super rich individual. Mega rich rely on government infrastructure to satisfy their needs and desires. They need other people to deliver for them. Squashing talent results in unexpected failures to succeed as a civilization. Some kid who doesn’t get breakfast regularly, or schooling, or ability to learn, might be the one human who arrives at an idea that changes the whole trajectory of human civilization. We want to cast the widest possible net, not to lose a single genius in our midst. Yet, we lose millions all the time. So frustrating. For the greed of a few, we diminish all of us.

This is an example of crazy:

Yes, to me, making a katana for a kitten is crazy. But this man has a passion for forging metal, he is an artist. And in the end, the world would be a lesser place if he didn’t pursue his art. So make time for what you love and who love.

Happy Birthday Beatles!