Hear me roar!

"I am a machine powered by spiritual energy."

These are the words I've recently found to explain my current take on life. I am propelled through the activities of each day by the spiritual harmony in my life: my positive view of myself, my ability to be good to and care for my friends and family, the affirmations of my beliefs that I find each day in the words and actions of my heroes. Without this everpresent harmony, I would very quickly collapse, and cease to live an enjoyable and productive life. My evil twin, Wurftown, is here to help me explore this further:

Wurftown: So you care about making money, right?
Murftown: Yes.
W: You care about having lots of friends and having a good love life?
M: Sure.
W: You want people to like you and admire you!
M: Guilty as charged!
W: I bet you even want a lot of power! You want to influence people, and, in certain cases, you want people to start acting like you.
M: Fair enough.
W: (Whispers guiltily) I want those too!
M: That's ok.
W: Well, it's hard to get those things...seems like so much work! And you have to be pretty...tricky!
M: (Surprised) Tricky!
W: (Smiles slyly) Yeah, tricky! You know what I mean: If you want to get rich, maybe you have to learn how to be a tricky stock-player or a shrewd businessman. If you want lots of friends and girls you need to alternately flatter them and make them feel insecure and needy, not to mention come up with lots of jokes so they'll think you're smart! To be admired you have to put up an admirable front. And don't get me started on power! You have to bribe and shmooze people night and day!
M: Really...
W: It's so frustrating! I can't be bothered with this oppressive daily grind! But still, sometimes I really want all those things.
M: You want them pretty badly?
W: Yeah!!
M: Hmmm. So the hope of achieving those goals is a pretty strong motivating force in your life?
W: I guess...
M: Huh. Well what else could be motivating you?
W: I dunno...
M: Ok...well, why don't you walk me through a typical day in your life.
W: Ok, so I get up--and it's really hard to get up, because it feels better to lay in bed. But I force myself up, slog to the shower, etc., etc., sometimes I eat some stuff, and I go to work. (I work in a button factory.) I work really hard and do a really kicka** job pushing buttons--that really knocks the socks off my colleagues and my boss! It feels so great to impress people like that! But lately there's this guy Stan who's been cheesing me off, big time! He thinks he's so great because he pushes more buttons than I do, and sometimes he even throws levers. He's not even that smart! But everyone loves him anyway. I hate it.
M: Ok...
W: Basically, life's a big drag! I do all this hard work, and I'm not even getting anywhere.
M: Yeah, it sounds like a drag! You do all that work, and then Stan effectively undoes it.
W: Exactly.
M: Because you're just trying to make money, win friends and influence people, and it doesn't seem like you really care about anyone, including yourself.
W: In real life, I'd get really upset at this point, but luckily this is a blog entry.
M: Right! So, you don't care about anyone, and you don't care about your work. And that makes me really sad, because you're my brother, and I love you and want you to be happy. You can't be happy if you don't care about anything.
W: Uh-huh...
M: In a certain way, you're a lot stronger than I am. If I had your outlook on life, there's no way I could even drag myself out of bed, let alone do all that exemplary buttonpushing you do every day. I'd be like an SUV running on fumes. And a guy can't fume forever.
W: So you're saying I need fuel?
M: Damn right you do!
W: Where do I get it?
M: You clean up your life! You start caring about yourself! Then you start caring about your friends! Then you start caring about your work! Once you, your attitude and your life are things you're proud of, you'll have no end of energy!

We are machines powered by spiritual energy.

Not greed. Not fear. Spiritual energy.

How do people like Thomas Edison, Teddy Roosevelt, Mohandas Ghandi and Steve Jobs accomplish so much in their lifetimes? By not caring about anything, and brute-forcing themselves through? By caring only about themselves, and, even then, only deeply enough to pursue surface goals in respose to surface needs?

I don't think so. Throughout their lives, they let the river of their love and spiritual energy flow.

And in letting the river flow, they moved mountains.