09/05/2021
The late Abraham Maslow, one of the most influential psychologists of all time, said something like this: It is better to be a member of your species than of your local neighborhood. I’ve always interpreted that to mean that many noble ideals of life are embraced by people at large but not necessarily honored or demonstrated on a day-to-day basis by the man or woman next door, or in the next office.
People tend to be petty, as illustrated, for example, by the want to be the boss’s favorite, regardless of what the favored one truly contributes, or to have the biggest SUV on the block, regardless of how strapped the driver is financially. Insecurity drives this behavior. We seem to continue on as children: "Mom likes me best" or "I’ve got the coolest (fill in the blank) in the entire school."
Maslow understood this pettiness; he said it tended to create a "pathology of the average." He believed, or so I’ve always interpreted, that people who find something more than this pettiness — who find something truly meaningful, something that fires their passion — reach a certain escape velocity that permits them to break free of the gravitational pull of self-soothing pettiness. And, given the mass of pettiness in our world, that’s a challenge.
Maslow said the escape was possible if a person could achieve a mindfulness that focused on something meaningful and passionate to them. He referred to this state of mind as "peak experience." It is a state of mind where time itself ceases to exist because we are wholly absorbed in what we’re doing. Those of you who have found yourself immersed in a good book, an enjoyable stretch of writing, a craft project, cooking a well-seasoned stew, will relate to this state of mind.
As a longtime resident of the western United States, where great rivers have been dammed and scenic and spiritual canyons inundated behind them, I like Maslow’s metaphor for the bliss and productivity of this state of mind. He said a person at peak experience is "like a river without dams."
Indeed.