Human-beings are no longer driven by the simple instinct to survive. Survival in its primordial meaning - not dying - is easier today than it used to be. We've mastered skills and knowledge that prevent us from dying of common diseases that, in the past, used to haunt whole countries. We can live longer now, but what for? It has become our mind's job to find meaning in life. And that meaning may come in the form of a passion. Be it a small or private one, be it grand and public, passions allow us to survive. We survive our own fears and anxieties, we survive impositions and even prejudice, we survive the trap of falling into a routine. When we are passionate about something - helping others, playing a sport, gaining some new knowledge... - we feed our minds and our emotions. We are able to detach ourselves from this purely material world and enter a state of flow described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: time loses its meaning and we are free to be simply happy, disconnected, untied.
Note: I timed it and it was almost a perfect 1 minute. If, however, the person who reads this has a slower pace of speaking, it might be good to remove some lines.
