Is our overriding task to love? To flourish fully (meaning--we are inseparable from all things, and thus for this organism to flourish fully all must flourish fully, physically, mentally, socially, spiritually)? Est inquietum cor nostrum, donec requiescat in Te? How great a percentage of human affairs are carried on from
a) survival needs
b) habit, inertia
c) desires for pleasure, status, power
d) joie de vivre
e) rightly aimed love of the Good
Dum sumus inclusi in his compagibus corporis, munere quodam necessitatis et gravi opere perfungimur; est enim animus caelestis ex altissimo domicilio depressus et quasi demersus in terram, locum divinae naturae aeternitatique contrarium. Sed credo deos immortalis sparsisse animos in corpora humana, ut essent qui terras tuerentur quique caelestium ordinem contemplantes imitarentur eum vitae modo atque constantia. Nec me solum ratio ac disputatio impulit ut ita crederem, sed nobilitas etiam summorum philosophorum et auctoritas. Cicero Cato Maior: De Senectute XXI.77