What Are You Doing Here?

Whatever happened to service with a smile? I'll tell you, it has been replaced by service with a snarl. Not in every case, but enough to notice, you will see customer service representatives showering you with contempt or retailers patting you on the back with one hand and picking your pocket with the other. The snarl can be because they hate you or because they are pretending to smile. I don't think the intent is to serve customers anymore. The purpose of business these days is to get rich and gain the advantage over everyone in sight.
But what is the world worth? Suppose you gain it all? Power, money and fame. So what? I'm not even talking about keeping up with the Jones', we all know that that mentality is based in simple-minded selfish pride. Does that sound harsh? I hope it does, because competition over who has the most expensive or just plain "the most" stuff is childish. What my neighbor has, that I wish I had, is of no consequence to me. It serves no functionality to covet. When has coveting ever been good? No, this isn't about keeping up with the Jones', this is about a desire that comes from within the individual that just wants more stuff. I don't even know what to call it. Of course it reduces to pride, but it seems that there has to be some name for it. Selfishness doesn't seem severe enough, but I suppose it does fit the bill.
What does fame, power and possession do for a person? These give a sense of fulfillment, but it is fleeting, much like the way drugs give a fleeting high. Like a drug induced high, the sense of fulfillment that comes from fame, power and possession builds thresholds. Subsequent exposure requires more substance to present a similar high. This is why power corrupts. It provides feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment, but eventually you get used to it. Then you need more. Attention (fame) works the same way. Do you think it happens this way with possessions as well?
There seems to be a drive inside every person which directs their choices. The desired end result focuses the drive. There seems to be no limit to the variety of desired end results. For many the end result desired is found through religion. Others find it in basic service and humanity. Others look to a career. There are countless goals. This is where fame, power and possession come into play. Some people place supreme importance on the gather of these things and status markers. It is in regards to all of this that I ask the question, "What are you doing here?" What is your purpose? If you don't know what you are doing here, then how do you decide what to do? Without a goal we are hapless creatures existed on instinct alone. We are no better than any animal on the planet. I believe we have divine nature, that we are children of God. We are on a higher plane of existence than animals because of this relationship we share with God. I wouldn't say we are better, as they too are creations of God, but there is a different relationship, which holds greater responsibility and greater privilege, held by humans.
I can only say subjectively that every person has a greater end goal than fame, power and possession. It is an objective truth to me, but I have only subjective experience to support it. I offer that it can become an objective truth to anyone willing to ask the right questions in the right spirit to the right source. I think it is important that we ask these questions and find answers. If I don't know have an end goal then what am I living and working for? There has to be some purpose. I suggest that it is a collective purpose, possibly unrecognized by some, but still worked for, that keeps anarchy at bay. It isn't political government that maintains the peace, it is a collectively shared purpose that does so. Yet so many of us, some always and others occasionally, just drift through life without purpose or reason, never knowing which way to go. I'll be so bold as to say that every problem in this world is a result of this drifting. If we each had a purpose and valiantly stuck to the attainment of that purpose, and it was a good purpose, then all problems would diminish. Not disappear, but diminish. There would still be sickness and accident, death and debate, but it would all be bearable.
This is the way to fix everything. Each person honestly ponders what they are doing here. They give it time, years if necessary. They develop a purpose that is good and then they do all they can to achieve it. At the expense of fame, power and possession. There is something that is greater than all that man has ever thought up or put together with his hands. To find that and then dedicate every resource to it is the ultimate path of life. Every person will take an individual path, but that doesn't mean that every path is unique. We will all be rewarded with what we want the most. We show what we want the most by our actions coupled with the intent behind them. It is easy to fool others, it is even easy to fool ourselves. We might profess that we want to do one thing, but then behave contrary to it, and then reason that we have to do the one as a means to the end of the other. I don't think it is that convoluted. It is simple. Determine what we want, and then do those things that lead to it. Don't go left to go right, go right to go right. This message is as much to me as it might be to anyone else. What am I doing here, and for what purpose am I doing it?