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I’ve been down lately. I don’t really have much to be down about. But sometimes life just wears you down I guess. I have an amazing wife, the cutest baby girl, 3 fun-loving dogs, and a good job. So what’s missing? Life has become bleak. I don’t know when or exactly why my perspective changed. Maybe a year ago? I started seeing life for the rat race that it is and it has really affected me. Everyone building their own little empires, going to work to collect their paychecks, to buy a bigger house, nicer cars, status, ego… What does it all amount to? Why is life set in this format where we are prone to be greedy, self-interested, and segregated from one another? Maybe this is part of where the argument evolves from of capitalism vs. socialism. Socialism obviously doesn’t work very well in this world, but why must the world we live in thrive off competition and not harmony? Was God’s design for this world intended to make us compete rather than be unified? While God’s desire for us is to be unified, what of His design? We live in a world where we only get to have meaningful relationships with very few people. Think of how many more friends we would have if we didn’t live in a dog-eat-dog world, if we didn’t care about status, if we didn’t just live for ourselves to build our own little empires. Why does the format of this life limit us to having so few meaningful relationships? I heard a quote once saying something like you’re lucky if when you die you have 2-3 good friends in this world. Why does it have to be that way? Think of how many like-minded individuals must be out there that you would connect with given the opportunity. But instead, we are systematically geared to exist in confined circles. I would like to live in a world where we are more inclined to be integrated with each other. Instead, we spend most of our time at a job to make money for ourselves and our families. Maybe you do a little charity on the side, but for the most part you dedicate yourself to your job for your benefit, to pay your bills, for the purpose that you can live and prosper, not for someone else’s benefit. How much of our selfish attitudes are attributable to the world we were placed in? A world where resources are often hard to come by? Would mankind be more unified if resources were easier to obtain, if no one had to worry about food and shelter? If we are made in the image of God, and this life is a test in preparation for life hereafter, what does systematic segregation in this life teach us? The segregation that naturally arises in one’s pursuit to survive in a resource-limited world. Are we to overcome it? Or is it just a reflection of the eternal nature of things? How will our relationships with one another be in the next life? Is being sealed to your family for eternity a way we will continue to segregate ourselves from others not sealed to us? We are only able to be sealed to a handful of individuals in this life. Do temple sealings prevent us in the life hereafter from having equally meaningful relationships with others not sealed to us in this life? I for one long for the many meaningful relationships we had in the preexistence. To be reunited with the like-minded and true friends we’ve been disconnected from. The thousands, millions, billions? If one relationship in this life can bring us so much joy, how much more joy would we have. Maybe that reunion itself is one of the underlying reasons that Joseph Smith reportedly said if man could see beyond the veil, he would be tempted to leave this life.