When my kid, Indy, was 2 or 3 I had the idea of telling him fantasy stories. I’ve since abandon that idea because it was surprisingly hard to come up with entertaining adventures every single night. He would often repeat sections of the story from a previous night after I had just given my best shot at being brilliantly creative.
As if to say, “Sorry pop. Tonight didn’t really cut it. But do you remember when Princess Sarkozy was trapped in that snake snack hole!?”
Who knows. Maybe someday I’ll come back to them.
I wanted to tell you about one story.
It took place in a world of animals. All animals were neatly divided by species in their particular towns.
Meow Town, ruled by Princess Sarkozy, was in disarray. All the cats of Meow Town were lethargic and uninspired. Meow Town was on a severe downward spiral.
The princess felt she had to do something. There were many nights of adventure and travel. But eventually she arrived at Swine Village with a pack of guard dogs from Bow-Wowerton in tow.
You see, the elder pigs of Swine Village were known for their mystic abilities and great wisdom.
Princess Sarkozy wanted to get guidance from the pigs as how to turn Meow Town around.
She met alone with the elder swine at the top of a tall tower.
They told her that in order to turn Meow Town around she needed to find a Uniform Purpose for her loyal subjects.
Well, she misheard the pigs and thought they said she needed to find a Unicorn and a Porpoise.
Much of the rest of the story was her, and her party out to find a Unicorn and a Porpoise and then bring them back to Meow Town.
To make a very long story short, Princess Sarkozy ended up saving Meow Town all based on the obsessive pursuit of a misheard directive.
I thought of this story today because I woke up, as I do many mornings, having a strong desire to do the most useful, effective, purposeful work possible.
I have this strong desire to have a “Uniform Purpose.”
The problem I have is that I often feel like I am not purposeful enough. …that I’m not being useful enough.
I feel like I could do more… to be more. More as in more meaningful. To have a purpose driven life.
And that’s when it all falls down for me. “Meaningful” is a spiraling black hole for me.
Any kind of inherit value in anything quickly dissolves from my point of view.
The word “Meaningful” literally has no meaning for me.
So, I wonder, does it matter what I do any given day? Is it good enough if I just try not to cause suffering and further the happiness of others and myself. That’s what the Buddhists tell me to do.
The problem is, there is a strong drive to achieve within me. I’m sure it comes from an unconscious desire to try to fill something missing within me.
So I continually fight with an innate drive to achieve matched with a complete lack of inherent purpose.
I don’t have my pursuit of a Unicorn and Porpoise that was handed down to me by mystic leaders that will ultimately lead to my salvation.
I heard the elder swine just fine. All I need to do is find my “uniform purpose” and I’ll be all set. I wish I had heard them tell me to blindly and absolutely pursue a Unicorn and a Porpoise.
Picture from: Finless black porpoise on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
