When you were just a sperm, it was built into your DNA to want to live and to survive. That's why you were able to swim forward and win the "prize." Later, after you became a baby and a sentient human being, you were still driven to do the same thing --staying alive. In primal times, our very nature and drive to want to survive and continue living was also manifested through the need to procreate and reproduce. In a way, the need to want to stay alive and continue living is connected to the need to create babies. In the modern world, we are still subconsciously "driven" by our DNA to want to preserve life. What we consider "beauty" or "sexiness" is actually based on our primal instincts of searching for and selecting a potent suitor capable of producing a baby. Today, most healthy people are capable of having a baby, but our instincts for attraction were developed during a time of much less antibacterial soap, and a lot more sickliness and overall mutation. Picking a partner that was vital enough to mate with was based on evaluating their physical and mental state for signs of reproductive potency. Beauty = symmetry. Symmetry = Reproductive potency. Also, humor = intelligence. Intelligence = a healthy brain. A healthy brain = Reproductive potency. In males, muscles (especially muscular necks); and in females, breasts, hips/thighs, youth, amongst many other subtle things all also equal vitality. Love is a natural drug that lasts about 2-4 years (coincides with average divorce rate statistics) and was meant to keep the male and female euphorically and blindingly together long enough for the infant to grow and be more likely to survive. Unfortunately it is determined that that euphoric effect in your brain is only that strong for a limited time. Scientist know that primal males were far from monogomous because of our testicles (we are able to bust a nut multiple times a day, every day). Jealousy is also a sign of potency in a modern person because those that had jealous traits in primal times were simply less likely to lose their mate. Women are better than men at reading subtleties in another human beings facial expressions. While men read facial expressions very comprehensively in a deep and automatic way as well, women see even finer details and can focus on reading a persons facial emotions because in primal times, it was based on their survival. They had to know when a male was dangerously angry or moody by their facial expressions in order to keep safe. When a guy treats a girl like she is special to him, or how the old saying goes "every girl wants to feel special," it is actually taping into that same need to compete for reproductive potency. You want to be special so you can be chosen; you needed to be chosen to continue life. Being chosen is a natural high because it reaffirms your vitality.

The most you can do in life is create as many happy memories as you can and experience the least amount of pain. You might have heard the simplified meaning of life to be "the pursuit of happiness" but I have always seen it more specifically as the pursuit of fulfillment. The same way you hear accounts of extremely wealthy or successful people still feeling depressed, longing for something, and being overall unfulfilled, is the same way people feel if they don't have money or have happy times and memories. They are off the mark because what they are really searching for is even simpler. When I say it, it doesn't really hit you, but what everything, absolutely everyone's motivation boils down to, like an algebraic root of a formula is this: EVERYONE JUST WANTS SOMEONE TO HEAR WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY. This goes for everyone from the old hermit who lives alone in the mountains, to the international superstar celebrity. The reason this might not make perfect sense right off the bat is because there are a lot cultural and societal layers of complexities that make up a modern person. We are all just the totality of our socially transmitted behavior patterns, morals, values, ideas, and all other products of human work and thought. If we lift that layer up and peak underneath, all we are left with are those very simple and raw concepts: The want to live and continue to live, almost to a desperate degree, just like our friend the sperm. The reason it boils down not to the pursuit of happiness but the pursuit of fulfillment is because we feel good when we feel alive. And what makes us feel happy is "life". It doesn't seem like it does, but when you have an interaction or a communication with someone, you are in that very moment, defining yourself as alive by their very recognition of your being. When you have a conversation, or people see you in a movie, you are validating, in your own subconscious and desperate way that you are alive. It seems so simple but it governs synapses in our brains in a very subtle but profound way. Because of culture, you may have attributed these "drives" to something else in your life; such as thinking it comes from a more complicated set of laws that govern your mind. That is a big mistake. When every human of every generation is born, they have zero education. And as we grow a little older, we are not familiar with biology, chemistry, thermodynamics, and mathematics. We start off as kids who cant comprehend the complexities of what our communal society has uncovered about our origins and existence. So most of us (considering most of the planet is ultimately UN-EDUCATED and in the dark) go on living our raw and un-self-aware lives. In this raw state, who knows what you might have started to believe about yourself and the questions and answers you may have formulated that may have arisen before you comprehend and master biology, chemistry, thermodynamics, and mathematics (if you ever did or do). You have to work backwards through the BS to find the true root motivations --which are usually a lot simpler and less romantic and complex than you might wish or feel. Keep in mind that the palate of emotions all humans have in common now, are the same general palate from the literary works of ancient Greek times, which is a clue in that what governs us are emotional patterns based on repeatable results in every human generation based on the craftsmanship of biology and DNA in every generation. That is why it simply boils down to: everyone just wants SOMEONE to hear what they have to say. Any exception, (and 95% of all humanity is an exception) to this in a persons' views or denial of these concepts, stems from the cultural layer that we previously peeked under. Most people are plagued by FEAR/INSECURITIES and the denial of all of these raw emotions and this truth stems from many, many, many insecurities. Insecurity: the breeder of self-loathing, shame, and denial. Insecurity, if you don't truly grasp the depth of how it effects the mind, is its own beast that is many more essays longer and its far reaching effects are too deep to cover in this one. Many people are born, live their lives, are plagued by sadness, un-fulfillment, and depression, and then go on to die without ever even comprehending this point of view, or the root of why they are unfulfilled.

Communication with people on a deep level of humanity and TRUTH is something that can make people feel very alive. Truth is soothing and comforting in a very deep and subconscious way. People are attracted to TRUTH. Humor is deep, deep truth. Art is truth. Creativity is, knowing truth very well, and then making a play on it, like Jazz --syncopating in between the norms. Taking something real and changing it somehow is a way you can categorize all creativity. People respond to truth because it also makes them feel alive. All these previous concepts lead up to the ANSWER to humanities' troubles and lack of fulfillment. It's a two parter: 1) we all have to ask WHY. Why people do the things they do, concentrating on being aware, and self-aware enough discover others' root motivations. And 2) we have to go one step beyond just finding out why, beyond judging, and actually learn to APPRECIATE those root cultural motivators (although not necessarily appreciating the outcome). So those two things: Asking why, and then genuinely appreciating the why. The reason those are the keys is because that will lead to better communication. And communicating with each other and connecting on a deep level of humanity is the most fulfilling thing we can hope to achieve. For example an artist, or an actor or media personality has the opportunity to communicate on a massive scale with the whole world. And if you make an emotional connection with so many other human beings, it can be the most romantic and fulfilling feeling of being alive we can possibly hope to experience and live through. Just like the sperm wants to live on, the artist hopes to live on, desperately after death through their expressions of art. It is connected because it is part of our instincts. It is a desperate, yet semi-fulfilling way to try to live on after you die through achievements and/or fame. --Same with having babies. Feeling alive = validating your existence. Validating your existence = having someone hear what you have to say. The way we can all feel validated is by becoming effective and deep communicators. The way to do that is to form the habit to ask the WHY? Why do people do what they do?

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I never really "grew up" ....I just learned how to act in public.