The World doesn’t owe you: Get Fit for Purpose

Fit for Purpose

Well equipped or well suited for a designated role or purpose

As a biologist, I know that living organisms have form, function, and a quantum base.

Everything is made up of … well, stuff, that scientists reduce to quarks and particles.

The web of Life is about animals and plants with organs or cellular structures that perform distinctive functions, interacting together with the non-living stuff around them.

Sociologists and psychologists suggest that human beings have categories of needs. Here are the needs according to Maslow.

From a mechanistic point of view, as learned in High School Ecology, plants are living things which as primary producers, draw their energy requirements from the sun and from minerals and compounds, such as nitrogen and water.

Animals are primary consumers in terms that they cannot produce energy directly from non-living things. They consume living things, in order to grow, and in order for their cells /tissues/organs/ and organ systems to work harmoniously together.

We are born. We live. We die. Along the way, Homo sapiens or human beings try to learn to co-operate with each other, in order to ensure that we have our physical and other needs met.

Herein is the key to being fit for purpose.

Nobody owes you a house, or food from crops, or clothes from animals, or even love and support.

“To owe” means to repay a debt, or to be obligated to do something for someone or something out of fear of adverse repercussions.

When currency first began to be used, with the Mesopotamian shekel 5,000 years ago, it was a convenient measure or unit of account. It accounted for what was received, in the spirit of reciprocity.

In ancient times, it was largely not intended to amass currency or money for oneself, in order to grow one’s own material possessions, at the expense of others.

Currency was used to facilitate the transfer of things in an equitable or fair way. That is until those with authority got control over it.

Trade or direct barter was also a reciprocal activity, e.g. I will give you 2 fine sheep if you give me one bullock.

When people didn’t have anything to use for direct barter, commodities (such as grain) were loaned by merchants. The receiver then owed the loaner the equivalent value of what he received.

In 1754 the Code of Hammurabi described the first interest rates levied upon loans of silver.

Some may say that many of us today live in modern-day peonage or in un-fair debt servitude, e.g. owe the bank money for the house we are living in. So if I had a mortgage I would be in debt — to the bank. I would owe someone.

The bank would owe me the right to own my house once I paid it off. So we both owe each other.

But consider how this owing came about. Civilization came to the point where we have a banking system and I consciously chose to participate in it.

It doesn’t matter if I felt that I had little or no choice other than becoming in debt to the bank so that I could live in a house that I may call my own one day.

It doesn’t matter if I think that Life is not fair and that the banks are greedy power-mongers who only care about huge profits for those at the top.

The point is that, to me, the word “owe” means bondage and obligation, or paying a debt.

However, we live in a world arising from a natural or organic flow of cycles, a world where cooperation and reciprocity works in the wild among animal families, and between plants and animals, and where yes, the stronger subjugate the weaker, but let’s remember that these are non human animals we are talking about.

I thought that Homo sapiens or human beings brain power gave them the capacity not to dominate anything. Sociobiology, which portrays dominance as inevitable, may yet be proved to be wrong.

All men and women are created equal.

If you think that you are owed something, consider whether you are fit for the purpose of being “owed” it.

Consider that “fit for purpose” is certainly not one dimensional, so it’s no use looking at your fitness superficially.

To gain love and support from my family and friends, I must be fit for that purpose, i.e. be understanding and appreciative of them, and interact with and support them.

To be given my regular salary, I must turn up at work and complete my tasks properly.

To be a Formula 1 driver, I must be physically capable of it and skillful and intelligent enough to be so.

To be curated on Medium, as a Medium Writer, I must research how I might achieve this, and keep trying.

The natural flow of things in the human world is Reciprocity, not debt.

If any Story meets Medium’s requirements for curation, being high-quality writing, introspection from personal experiences, cultural relevance, and engaging topical content, then this may be reciprocated by the Story being curated.

Bear in mind that there are around 25 Curators and around 650,000 people registered on Medium.

If your Story is not curated, it may be because of the number dynamics.

If your Story is not curated, it’s no use gnashing your teeth and cycling through anger, resentment, bitterness, and hatred.

The Medium curators don’t owe you curation.

The World does not owe me. I learn and I try. I breathe and I move, and I grow.

And I am fit for the purpose of reciprocating and receiving.

About the Author

Celine Lai was born in Malaya (not Malaysia) and is the oldest inter-country adopted person in Australia. She loves reading and writing, and runs WordPress blogs and writes technical documents. She blogs mainly on Fascinating Animals.

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