"Security"

The notion of "security" is a driving force in our society. We go to great lengths to chase the feeling of financial security, pay high premiums for the feeling of physical security, and sacrifice thousands of young people and billions of dollars for national security. We'll do anything for these feelings of security; in this life, as far as many of us are concerned, it's what makes the pursuit of happiness possible. However, we can never feel ultimately satisfied in the level of financial, physical, or national security we can achieve. One way or another our feeling of security is compromised: we can never have enough money to cushion us from every sort of disaster, we can never be perfectly healthy or avoid physical injury, there will always been enemies of the state with increasing levels of technological advancement.

Meanwhile, within ourselves we are profoundly insecure about who we are, which entails knowing what we care about, what we're good at, what we enjoy, and therefore what we need. Most of us are driven to achieve heightened levels of security of self, probably because there is no directive on exactly how that's done. The best way to work toward it is to just try things, try anything, especially crazy things.