It’s been an abstract journey, one that has led me to reflect upon the nature of life and what it means to live in these days we share. History has shown us that humans eternally struggle to find common ground between our disagreements and what we consider to be the right way to live. So what role are we to play – or why should we play any role at all – in the development of the human race on earth? What do we consider reasonable progress of our individual humanity and our communal role as stewards of the earth? War is a more obvious face of the inequalities permeating our many cultures, but yet even thousands of years of history have not taught the lessons required to establish a cohesive union with our current brethren.
Some time in the future of man, nature will determine our end despite our best efforts to master both life and destiny. How must we behave and conduct ourselves until this time? Should we move to continue our habits as they are, with little regard to the consequences of our existence? I think not, lest we hasten the deprivation of our humanity and leave ourselves nothing but a tumultuous finale on this earth. Should we not instead find ground stable enough to balance our needs and wants against the realities of communal life? Our existence requires only few things, yet the needs we hold so close and dear are far more superficial than we have been led to believe, and our wants increasingly unjustified as we collect them in abundance. Perhaps it is commitment and focus inward that will lead to our discovery of that which is pure and necessary; it is focus outward that will lead us to treasure the little abundance we have that others do not.
As social beings, I argue that our nature requires us to act virtuously in the care of our fellow beings, avoid selfish posturing on pedestals, and take in all that is our history and legacy in hopes of perfecting a future of broad visions. Such visions must consider the actions that have left our soils bereft of life and look to sustain equality for those that will share in the future of our resources; they must consider the nature of our relationships with our fellow animal beings; they must stress an unwavering commitment to the persistence of justice in the eyes of the beholder; and they must over all else ensure that the lessons of our failings, both past and present, permeate throughout our future.
“I say that man is condemned to be free… because he did not create himself, yet, in other respects is free; because, once thrown in to the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”
– Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotion 
Wheeling Jesuit University Appalachian Institute 