stevie ray vaughan

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

living

"When the willingness of a person to understand meets the unreasnableness of the world that is the absurd." Lately I have been learning about the absurd and existentialism. Two corresponding views on life. The absurd is really a category within existentialism. Existentialism mainly deals with the idea of what life is. Life for the existentialist is the most simply complex thing. We live, we enjoy the life we live and we die. The meaning is our experiences throughout that life, and no one and nothing defines who we are. We define who we are and what our soul looks like. Ultimatley the environment we grow up in and what we are surrounded by affects certain parts of who we become, but only if we let it. We are brought into this world as a blank canvas that we paint everyday. In other words existence preceeds essence. There is no god, but that does not make life meaningless just because there is no strive for anything more then the life we are given. We enjoy it while it lasts so to speak and it is truly what we make of it. A gift.

So after about a month of classes that is what I have learned about existentialism. This perplexing body of thought inspired me to write this post and see what your thoughts are on this body of thought. I know that I personally feel like an existentialist aside from the fact that i do look into the future when I make decisons. For teh existentialist there is only the present, they do not live in the past or the future. I certainly do not try to live in the past but I do take into acount what has happened in the past to help me make better wiser choices. I do consider myself to be moderatly religious, but I find my self thinking like an existentialist. This causes me to question my religion occasionally. Can anyone relate?

3 comments :

  1. This is complicated, and I'm thinking out loud, can we truly live as existentialists if we are not alone? We grow by learning from those around us , aren't we influenced by- our parents, our guardians, teachers, our peers, our siblings If we are alone. Doesn't our past define how we have evolved to today. Perhaps there is a small part of us that is a result of existentialism. Isn't our existence defined by those we love even if religion is not involved. Does it also mean that we don't consider the future like job or marriage, how we want to live?. Living in the present and living it well also involves spirituality of sorts(appreciation, meditation, peace) and that gives it meaning (meaning which we learnt at sometime past). Religion is more than a simple definition it is belief, action, expression and experience with something bigger and good. It's all intertwined. We continue to grow when we question even in faith. I hope I didn't go off at a tangent.
    Interesting TY
    BM

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  2. Hey! This is my first visit to your blog, and what a blog it is.

    Ummm, okay. Firstly your blog reminds me of a quote I once read somewhere, "most of us don't live, but we just exist" (or something along those lines).

    This is the first time I'm hearing of ' existentialist', and so decided to wikipedia it quickly. From what it says there, maintained that the individual is solely responsible for giving his or her own life However like the person above me has said, that is not the case. Life is like a intricate rope, formed from multiple fibres each interwound against one another. And every thing we do, everything we see, has an effect on us be it big or small.

    Does living in the present have to be mutually exclusive with living in the past? Can't you enjoy your live, enjoy your existence while preparing for the future, preparing for the next step?

    Thank you for posting!
    :)

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  3. If you hadn't already noted, I have changed my blog URL. Please unfollow me and follow me again at closingpandorasboxx.blogspot.co.uk . Thanks! :)

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