Sounds a little … earthy? A little … dirty perhaps?
Not really, though it does have its roots in the traditional sense of the word “organic”.
The dictionary defines it thus … (of food or farming methods) produced or involving production without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial agents.
Clearly, we are not talking about farming or food, what we are talking about is life and living. Equally as obvious, we are not talking about the non-use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. A life using those agents would be pretty bad, no? What we are talking about here is living without the use of artificial agents.
So what are these artificial agents? For me, I had simply begun learning what “agents” were likely artificial agents of life and living and which ones were likely not. But, if I had to define them (and in all honesty this is the first time that I’ve sat down and truly attempted to define them), I would define these artificial agents of life as; views and opinions, cultural stereotypes, upbringing, societal labels, prejudices, religious and non-religious practices, media, plus an infinite list of other factors that hinder your ability (and your motivation) to live the life that you truly wish to live.
Phew, a bit of a lengthy definition there, and it probably doesn’t make much sense right now. However, I am hopeful by the end of this post you will have a better hold on the definition, and more importantly, I hope you will have ideas on what the artificial agents are in your life. I think though you now have a grasp on why I use the analogy to organic (farming) above? Simply put, remove the artificial agents and let it grow naturally.
The first question I expect you’re thinking right now is;
“Well how can the way I was raised, or my religion, or what music I listen to, or my education, or political affiliation, be an artificial agent? It’s who I am.”
This is where living organically gets difficult (you didn’t think it would be easy living organically did you?). Some of these “agents”, or perhaps, almost all of these “agents” are not artificial per se, though (and this is the kicker) with any of them, the potential exists for them to be artificial “agents”. Basically, you need to be prepared to look at all of these “agents” and ask yourself the question(s);
“Is this what I really believe?”
“Is this really who I am?”.
This line of thinking reminds me very much of a series of books I loved as a child; The Dragonlance Chronicles (yes, I was a fantasy book lover). In this book there was a band of adventurers led by a character named Tanin, who was a half-elf. And in this band of adventurers was a character called Sturm, who was a Knight of Solamnia. Being a Knight of Solamnia required Sturm to follow a specific code of behavior. He wanted to be a Knight of Solamnia and so he followed the code, though he did often express how much effort it required of him to do so. In contrast, Tanin, who was not a Knight nor made a specific choice to follow any code, was better able to adhere to Strum’s Knightly code than Strum himself. This was because Tanin “lived” the code, it was natural to him, yet to Sturm it was artificial, no matter how much he wanted to be a Knight it was still an artificial agent.
I guess that’s what I’m saying … you’ve got to find that “code of behavior” for your life that you follow, without you actually you needing to follow it because it just … happens.
Do you really believe that you shouldn’t have sex before marriage or is that just something you were brought up to believe?
Do you really think your career is more important than your leisure pursuits or is that something your culture leads you to value?
Is the only true version of love the love between a monogamous man and woman or is that simply all that popular media has shown you?
Yes, we are products of our environments, and that’s ok, that’s not the problem. The problem becomes clear when we take a step back and begin to realize that variation and diversity is not particularly encouraged in the current mainstream environment in which we (all people) live, grow and develop. The breadth and depth of experience available within this environment is far more limited than what truly exists for being human, for being a unique individual. I think this leaves us with two opposing possibilities; 1) We live in/create an environment that simply does not have room for the breadth and depth of human “uniqueness”, or 2) There’s far too many of us that think, feel and imagine weird things!!
I know that for me, over the past few years, I’ve been seriously questioning many of the beliefs and views I’ve held (many of which I’ve held for most of my life). Questioning the environment in which I live. Asking myself;
“Is this what I truly believe?”
“Is this the environment in which I want to be?”.
“Is this my code?” (And yes, I do still yearn to be a knight in shining armour…or a pirate!)
This questioning has been both frightening and exhilarating. I’ve realized that much of what I have believed for the majority of my life, I was no longer sure of. I began to question everything and I eventually came to a point where I had very little left that were my own beliefs and views. I discarded any beliefs and views that were no longer … who I am. Much like cleaning out an old closet, some
items/beliefs were difficult to discard but after some hard work, I now found an empty closet that was ready to receive new (and more colourful) ideas and beliefs. This cleaning process has allowed an exciting period of growth and development that has exceeded any other time in my life, by a very large margin. Even though I’ve always felt pretty confident in knowing who I am as a person, I’ve been incredibly surprised and delighted by how much I’ve been able to learn about myself as a unique individual. And it’s clear that it has been, and will continue to be, an ongoing process. Every single experience, new and old, unique and routine, presents abundant opportunity for me to continue to question what I believe, to see who I am as a person, ultimately to explore “my code”. For the first time in my life, I actually feel like I’m growing and developing organically as a person, and moving naturally along my life’s journey.
That’s what living organically means to me.
