hey so im gonna jump on the bandwagon (not something i generally do) everyone else is on for their blogs lately, simply because it got me thinking about things when i read everyones posts.
so... living. thats what we're all doing right? it seems like there is some minimum requirement, some level we have to reach before we are "living". so im thinking about this level of living it seems we need to reach. how does one go about achieving this level of living? are there certain experiences we must have before we can be considered "living"? i mean, what if you do something totally amazing, some crazy adventure that most people never experience but always want to, and you walk away from the experience having learned nothing, having the same point of view on life? is that living? or what if you do some mundane activity that people do everyday, without even thinking about what they are doing because it is so bland and ordinary, but you have this revelation about life because of it and you are changed, maybe not a lot but you are changed, because of it? is this living? am i living?
"The worst mistake that you can make is to think you're alive when really you're asleep in life's waiting room."
i dunno... i do like the idea of us giving our own meaning to life. i know we cant control everything, in fact there are so many things we cant control, but there is something we can do, we can choose to go out and do things or we can choose not to for fear of whatever it is that scares us. even through pain and anger and sadness, i think i prefer doing something and regretting it rather than not doing something and wondering what could have been and then regretting not doing it. i mean i dont have a lot of regrets thus far (though there are some), but if im going to have regrets, id rather have experiences to accompany them. and as far as choosing whether or not to do something because of the risks that accompany it, i just think of this quote from Waking Life: "What is the most universal human characteristic, fear or laziness?" are we afraid of taking risks and having experiences, or are we just too lazy? and is laziness perhaps just a manifestation of fear, because we dont want to admit we are afraid so we play it off as something else? idk, but lately i have been trying not to have that fear. natalie said something to me about life that i like: "Sometimes you gotta let go of your fears and inhibitions and jump into that moshpit". well, moshpit may not be the preferred analogy for some of you, but it is my cup of tea :). and the analogy works and its true. you might get a little beat up in the pit, but if you never go in, you always wish you would have, even if only for a few minutes.
as far as the whole ups and downs of life thing goes, i know people will complain, and thats ok cuz i will too. its ok to complain sometimes, and everyone does, its just a matter of realizing that you do have some control and you can do something about what is going on in your life. its also a matter of looking at the good and bad, like rohini said, and looking at what you can learn from your experience. its all about perspective man.
"The reason why I refuse to take existentialism as just another French fashion or historical curiosity is that I think it has something very important to offer us... I'm afraid were losing the real virtues of living life passionately, in the sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something of yourself, and feeling good about life. Existentialism is often discussed as if it were a philosophy of despair, but I think the truth is just the opposite. Sartre, once interviewed, said he never felt one minute of despair in his life. One thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as a real kind of exuberance, of feeling on top of it, it's like your life is yours to create. Ive read the post modernists with some interest, even admiration, but when I read them I always have this awful nagging feeling that something absolutely essential is getting left out. The more you talk about a person as a social construction or as a confluence of forces or as being fragmented of marginalised, what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses. And when Sartre talks about responsibilty, he's not talking about something abstract. He's not talking about the kind of self or souls that theologians would talk about. He's talking about you and me talking, making decisions, doing things, and taking the consequences. It might be true that there are six million people in this world, and counting, but nevertheless, what you do makes a difference. It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms, it makes a difference to other people, and it sets an example. In short, I think the message here is that we should never write ourselves off or see eachother as a victim of various forces. It's always our decision who we are."
