As we grow from infancy into this worldly life, the initial and innate activity of our minds and, thus our bodies, is the giving of all we’ve got. In order to know what that all is, we first reach out to explore and experience all that we can. I suspect this is also true of every other species. Yet, watching and being of this group, I can most confidently say that this is true for us.
Our dominant motivation is not the getting of anything; it is the giving, the doing, the participating. We incessantly reach to know for ourselves the satisfaction and thrill of touching the world, engaging with Life and having influence in the lives of other people.
Yet, so often, these initial attempts at interaction, when we extend our arms into the air, are mis-interpreted or translated for us as “Baby wants to eat this,” “Baby wants Mommy or Daddy to do that.” And the adults who describe our experience this way were misdirected long ago. They may even hold themselves in disdain as having been reduced to incessant getting-machines. And, as they continue the tradition of turning new giving minds into getting mouths, they feel the yoke of being the infant’s waiter, chauffeur and slave.
Soon, the joy of having given birth to a helpmate is replaced by the resentment of being simply a caretaker. As the subservient parents are making one more generation of frustrated consumers, their own gifts to the world go unmanifested. And those world-enhancing, possibly, species-preserving ideas, which are eager to be expressed through them, may lie dormant for their entire lifetime. Then, even apart from child-rearing, this same, well-programmed adult may continue to believe his best contributions to life lie in what he gets. He, then, turns his attention to feeding, clothing and idly amusing himself, while the world spins on the poorer for it.