We get up, start the day, prepare the kids for school, or head to work if we are single. The day passes in a flurry. Afterward, we get home exhausted and crash until the next morning so we can start over the next day. Could this be what makes life meaningful? That’s exactly what a recent global study investigated. 39% of respondents said that family was the primary source of meaning in their lives, compared to 2% who found meaning in faith and spirituality.
According to a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center among 19,000 adults in 17 developed countries around the world, the most important factors in a person’s life are their family, career, and financial well-being.
No wonder family is the main source of contentment. Family plays the most important and direct role in a person’s development, as it is the closest and most influential circle. The rest of the circles also influence and fill time with quality, but they are more distant, less stable, and can change from one day to the next. A person can switch jobs, friends, or a place of entertainment, but not their family. In spite of the difficulties sometimes experienced, the person is dependent on and connected to the family. This is why it is so important.
After two years of COVID-19, one might have expected that people would ask more about the meaning of life and, therefore, be more attracted to spirituality. But in the end, humanity is not particularly thoughtful or contemplative about the global epidemic. Rather, people feel oppressed for not being able to travel abroad freely, for having to wear masks and for needing extra shots to prevent the spread of the virus, as well as a number of onerous restrictions.
However, overall we have learned to live with the plague. Soon humanity will also forget about the new variant that invaded our lives. Our human nature is willing to voluntarily receive pleasure and enjoyment for ourselves and only for ourselves. Day by day this egotistical nature grows, becomes coarse and thick, so sophisticated and cunning that the person does not get impressed anymore about anything. We are constantly bombarded by information about wars, mass famine, and new virus variants, but until we experience such a reality in all our senses, we do not believe it is happening and do not take action towards change.
Nevertheless, I cannot say that the coronavirus has not had an impact on us. It revealed to us how much we depend on each other since we are a small global village. But in the network of communication between us, in our inner feelings, we remain indifferent and detached from each other. So, what will naturally happen is that the egoism will get stronger; more global blows will appear until we realize that only when we feel like one family, in mutual guarantee, will we be able to thrive.
We will perceive our lives as purposeful solely through our close human connection. If we were to shape the face of society with the pattern of an ideal family, we would have made our lives better, creating a good, warm, and friendly atmosphere for ourselves. We would have built a good environment that embraces us like a loving mother. The more we connect emotionally to each other, the more we will feel the power of connection, the supreme force of nature, an attribute of giving and loving, a good and benevolent force. If we just cling to nature’s qualities and intentions, we will discover the meaning of life, both in corporeality and spirituality for complete fulfillment.