From Survival to Service: The Maturing of Our Species

  Did you ever hear yourself say something you didn’t even know you knew much less ever thought about? If you have, you know the feeling of surprise and wonder…like who just said that? Was that me talking? This is why so much wisdom flows out of dialogue with one another. The exchanges are spontaneous and we often don’t have time to get ensnared in our minds. Our intuition just comes through uncensored.

Well, the other day, in such a dialogue with one of my spiritual communities, we were in conversation about service. Some read quotes about service. Others read poetry. I found myself saying that as we mature as people we are less and less motivated by survival  fears and more and more motivated by wanting to be of service to others….we morph from survival focus to service focus. Sometimes this journey is slow and gradual. Sometimes it is quite sudden. It depends upon the rate we are maturing.

Not only was I surprised but a silence filled the room for several seconds. Then one of our group asked me to say more. 

Now my mind got into the act and I’m sure I was less precise and concise as I tried to “explain” what I said. I liked the uncensored contribution to the dialogue better than my subsequent explanation.

We see this phenomenon is our aging society, whereby people are more apt to volunteer and do other service work when they are part of the growing older community. They have dropped the insecurities of youth and the façade that adolescent minds tend to take on. Pretense has gone out the window for many seniors who have become much more comfortable in their skin that when they were younger.

Another bit of wisdom that seems to come with age is the value of real meaning. The more people chase material possessions and stuff the more they realize the gratification is only skin deep and doesn’t sustain. They learn that true meaning comes by serving others without condition, getting out of themselves.

So if this happens for many people as they get older and some get more mature - and I’m clear these are two distinct qualities -  then why couldn’t a society do the same? Why couldn’t the species known as human make this transition and grow up into an adult society? What a concept?