It’s a new year with the words beginning and new being tossed about with a certain amount of shade being cast on the previous two years where we battled through a pandemic. But, what is really new? What are we beginning? Where are we going and why? 

I love liminal spaces – laundry mats, travel centers, parks, stores. One of my favorites is Home Depot. It is a home improvement store. Who doesn’t want to improve their home? And, seems like we are always on a quest to improve ourselves and our homes so a store that provides nearly anything one could need seems like a good idea – right? 

You park your car, don your mask and find your way through the double doors. First thing you do is grab a shopping cart and you’re off on your grand quest. There are several ways to approach the quest. You can meander up and down each aisle deciding what to put in your cart or you can have a list for your project or needs and navigate from section to section only adding what you need. Time passes and you are suspended from your routine life. You might greet other shoppers or sales associates or have something customized for you. I always find myself accessing the web on my phone to get more specifics, compare prices, or look up a location in the store. You go to the checkout and exchange your hard earned money for what is in your cart, load it into your car, and return to your routine life. 

Now, how do you feel? Did you accomplish your goal of feeling improved or at home? Or maybe your goal was to just transcend your everyday life for a moment where there are no rules or “right?” That’s ok too.

Does what you put in your cart serve your needs? How about your purpose? 

Imagine going into Home Depot with no list or goals. Just put in the cart whatever you feel like buying? Will you feel the same way that you would if you were working towards a goal or purpose? It’s an easy way to overspend.

Life is a lot like Home Depot. If we have a purpose or even just a goal, then our time is well spent and we don’t deplete our resources pursuing whimsy. Each day our shopping cart is empty. Probably the same old cart as yesterday. Are you seeking? Looking to improve? Searching for home? On a quest? Without a purpose in life you may spend all your time searching the internet or world for what to put in your cart. You might even overlook the fact that you don’t need anything in your cart at all. Just the experience of waking to the possibility an empty cart provides is enough. What is your purpose? What’s in your cart?

The Covid pandemic has changed our world. Many people have reevaluated their life purpose. I raised my daughters in Alaska. They were educated at home. In fact I could often be heard telling someone, “I put the Home in Homeschool.” Indeed we were home most of the time. We spent a lot more time at home than nearly everyone else. My husband went to work everyday but his weekends and evenings were spent at home. We rarely went out and pertaining didn’t take vacations. Mydaughters are quite comfortable staying at home for days even months. They have no need to go out in the world and learned to look within themselves and their home for what they needed. They have a compass for navigating the outside world because they know where their true North Star is. 

But, it wasn’t like that for me when I was young. I am a boomer. I was one of the first groups of American children to be sent to Kindergarten. Daycare, Pre-School, and all day Kindergarten were in full swing by the time my GenX sister turned 4 in 1970. She had way more television to watch including lots of “children’s programming.” We went somewhere every single day and our days were spent going from one classroom to another consuming. After 12 years we were fully programmed to produce and consume and weigh all our worth by our ability to fulfill the expectations of authorities. We never dreamed of choosing a life purpose or direction. And, the ability to stay home was never an option.

The public education system in the US is not about education at all. It is about programming and keeping people out of the job world for as long as possible. The  system is quite effective because over the last 20 years post secondary education expense has produced an entire generation of educated people who start their lives in debt that will follow them well beyond their children becoming adults (if they can even afford to have children or their own homes). Unless the program glitches, they will remain on the treadmill. The program feeds on itself and cycles endlessly.

Our health care system has us looking outside of ourselves for cures, remedies, and answers. Our true freedom lies in knowing ourselves and our purpose; yet at every turn the programming runs it’s endless loop. How many independent thinkers do you know? Or true free people that have a purpose and rise above their programming? How many people are actually comfortable with being at home anymore? You get sick or have a disability – you are punished by the program and now have lost even more freedom.

Covid shut down schools and workplaces. It challenged our economy in so many ways. Our values will need to change. It makes people very uncomfortable way beyond the physical health challenges. When we are asked to mask or vaccinate, or cut down on going places, we feel like our freedom is being taken away. Really? Isn’t life more than going, spending, consuming, being cogs in the gear of an economy that has no interest in the individual, independence, or freedom? The economic crash and subsequent dust bowl of the 1920s-30’s, WWII, and the Vietnam War had the same affect on different groups of young people causing them in reevaluate their lives. The pandemic has even caused us to reevaluate our affect on the global climate and environment. Those events turned families and communities inside out much like the Covid pandemic has.

What is in your cart? Are you staring it? What is your purpose? I struggle with this every single day. I had to teach myself to be happy and to feel comfortable at home. I had to learn to trust myself and not look outward for validation or balance.No, it’s not easy. You need a big picture of the world and a scheme to make it start to fit together. You do need to believe in something. Tap into that emptiness above the atmosphere where there is no weather.

It is a “new year!” Way beyond resolutions or revelations or even predictions; we need a new alignment within ourselves. We need a purpose and a direction. What does it mean to be a human being in 2022? The world and humanity will be stronger and healthier if we all stop and reach out – connect – create a community within and without that doesn’t pivot on consuming and producing. 

The pandemic has allowed me the time to research my ancestry. I’m convinced the whole concept of home changes each generation. My grandparents coming of age in the 1920’s had a totally different relationship with home than my Greatest Generation parents. My Gen X daughter has a different concept than my Millennial daughter. But, nearly all of my ancestors had some concept of freedom, individuality, and purpose. They survived because they relied on themselves and their community. Their values ran deep and they believed in something greater than themselves or their value as a part of an economy. 

Where are we going? What is your purpose?