We are living in a time of great crisis. The world has experienced many of these down through history, so this isn’t something new for humans. What is new is that there are a lot more of us here right now than ever before. We have shrunk the globe with our technologies, so the sense of being crammed together and having to deal with problems that used to be just “something happening over there” is greater than it once was. Whether we like it or not, we can’t pretend that we are not all in this together, one way or the other. Everything we do affects everyone else. Plus we have the means to learn and talk about all of it in lightning-fast real time like never before in human history. That just adds gasoline to the rolling dumpster fire of current events.

Even though I don’t watch the news, or even spend any time reading news articles on the Internet, I can’t avoid hearing about ISIS. The stuff they are doing is terrifying, to say the least.

A few days ago, some friends gathered in my back yard for a late evening chat around the fire pit. As usual, we started chewing on the world’s problems together. 

Someone said, “Hear about that American guy ISIS beheaded?”

I hadn’t, so he told me.

The conversation turned to other things, but the horror of such a brutal movement stayed with me long after everyone left.

Later I sat alone by the coals of a dying fire, thinking about what could attract humans to join groups like ISIS or the Nazis. There are many reasons, not the least among them being simple self preservation, of course, but one thing stands out for me. A sense of purpose.

We live in a time of personal and collective famine where Purpose is concerned. We are starving for it. Some will do almost anything to get it.

Answering the question of “why am I here?” did not used to be so complicated. We got up in the morning and scrambled around for enough food and other basic survival needs. If we survived, that was success. We didn’t have to wonder very much about the bigger questions. We didn’t have time. Now we do and it is driving us crazy.

The fact is, when people feel lost or lacking a sense of meaning, purpose or direction, they will usually gravitate toward the nearest, loudest voice that promises to help them fill the void.

We want something to live and die for. We crave an Ethos.

The Germans, downtrodden after a devastating World War I, heard Hitler promising to restore national pride. Many of them said, “Yes!”

Many people in the Middle East, terrified and shaken by generations of heartbreak and turmoil, have gravitated to ISIS’s underdog play for hearts and minds because it seems to be a way to fight back. They aren’t alone in this. Young people from other nations have joined the cause, which frightens and confuses us. “Why would they get into something so awful?” we wonder, “They have everything they need to live wonderful lives. This isn’t their fight.”

Oh, yes it is.

The fight to find meaning and purpose is universal. If we don’t have anything better at hand, we will often take up stupid causes just so we don’t have to face the deeper questions for ourselves, right where we live.

Then, since I mentioned them in the title and really should deliver on my implied promise to talk about them, we have the Confederates. I have been surprised to notice the rebel flag being hotly discussed around social media lately. Wasn’t that war fought and done with some other long time ago?

It was and it wasn’t.

In the historical thicket of issues like states’ rights, racism, slavery, and federal control, one remains very much alive and new generations revive it from its dormant state long after its expiration date would seem to have come and gone if we are focused on a particular like the Confederate flag and its surrounding ethos. That issue is the one I am talking about here. A sense of purpose, the feeling of tribal belonging, a collective will to do something about perceived wrongs by outside forces. All of these get tangled together into a longing that sometimes makes people do crazy, inhumane things in their quest to satisfy it. There is not room to discuss all of the reasons why some modern Americans still cling to a long-outdated symbol like the confederate flag, but I feel strongly that an important one is the desire to let out a loud rebel yell and say a big “fuck you” to anyone who threatens their way of life–their Ethos. They cling to the symbol of rebellion like a life raft. 

Young people, in whom the spark of desire to burn with purpose has not yet been extinguished by life as it has in most of their elders, are especially susceptible to fall into wrong-headed movements. They don’t want to concede their passion just yet, even if they have no direction for it and few positive role models they can trust to help them channel it. They are quietly desperate not to slouch through college and find themselves throat deep in adulthood, accepting the same pointless answers that obviously have not satisfied their parents and other adult leaders. They want to live something real. They want to know that it is possible that their lives matter. We all do, but young people have not yet fully acquiesced to the pragmatism which seems to suffocate the desire for truth in those who raised them. They don’t want to end up as frauds living a fake life.

As I said before, this is a time of crisis; however, every crisis is a fulcrum point. The seesaw can go either way. One side is chaos, fear and destruction. The other is growth, transformation and progress. Which way it tips is up to us. We place weight on either side by the attention we give it. Unconscious choices add more pounds to the side of chaos. Aware, responsible choices help to tip the balance toward growth and life. 

We are offered this choice now. It is far too big if we feel we have to go up against the massive forces of fear. We can’t make a choice for the entire planet full of people to find their purpose and meaning in positive ways. That’s impossible. But it is entirely possible to make tiny, daily choices to find and create what feels true and real for ourselves. It is possible to prune the dead wood from life and cultivate what is alive. It is possible to revive what is best in us, but it requires work and focus and making choices to go against the soul deadening forces of inertia.

Lately I have been excited to experience a personal revival of this in my own life. Even on days when I am not 100% sure that my life makes a difference, I find that it helps to take a long bike ride, go swimming with my children, dig in my garden, or work on a book that has been waiting to be finished. Do something that makes me remember I am alive. I have also watched it happening for many other people around me. Slowly, quietly, we are doing something about it. A little at a time, the seeds are taking root and sprouting. I feel that this is the only real solution that can help us make sense of a time when the world has gone mad. One breath at a time, one courageous act of love at a time. That’s how we change our world. That is also how we find our own joy and meaning in life. If we do this, our lives matter. This is how we make a difference.