The Challenging (Evolution of the Mind Through Creativity)

There\u27s a big difference between simply settling for life as it is and being genuinely satisfied within it. So it\u27s not hard to find people who, though generally content with their lot, nevertheless feel perhaps a greater sense of purpose or that some unnamed quality is missing from their lives. Maslow (1967) elaborates: All the evidence we have (mostly clinical evidence, but already some other kinds of research evidence) indicates that it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being, and certainly in almost every newborn baby, that there is an active will toward health, an impulse toward growth, or toward the actualization of human potentialities. But at once we are confronted with the very saddening realization that so few people make it. Only a small proportion of the human population gets to the point of identity, or of selfhood, full humanness, self actualization, etc., even in a society like ours which is relatively one of the most fortunate on the face of the earth. This is our great paradox. We all have the impulse toward full development of humanness. Then why is it that it does not happen more often? What blocks it? This is our new way of approaching the problem of humanness, i.e., with an appreciation of its high possibilities and simultaneously, a deep disappointment that these possibilities are so infrequently actualized. (pp. 153-4) It\u27s the attitude difference between truly understanding life and simply making the best of it. Without that understanding, the seemingly separate, idle encounters of everyday life become a roller coaster ride of exciting turns and twists, but lack any sense of purpose or design