Are you the type of person who must find meaning in all things? Are you preoccupied by the substance of what/who you are, the roles you play and the things you do and constantly explore and weigh them accordingly? Or are you all about the EXPERIENCE of things? Where you feel deeper considerations aren't really your domain, sensation is what counts, and self-reflection slows you down? Alternatively, perhaps you are a mix of both? (If the latter, I would love to hear how you break down and reconcile the split.)
Everything I encounter is an experience, to which I ascribe degrees of meaning, from none to a great deal. Some things simply don't engage any subjective or objective contemplation for me; other things do. It's hard to imagine it being just one or the other.
Experience. Any semblance we've got to meaning is an illusion. Reminds me of Hemmingway. Sometimes, you just gotta have a well lighted place to distract yourself from the nada nada.
Wish I could come around to this way of thinking. Flattering myself that I am edging closer to this ideal (bitterness ftw). Yes, ideal, since the compulsion to find meaning in everything is a horrible one to have in a world where it isn't valued. Note I don't say that meaning does not exist because I believe it does. However, meaning is essentially a private concept that one can only hope to discover in others in a form and integrity congruent to your own. Only then does meaning seem to unfold from a purely insular concept into one that can escape into breathable space. (Meaning is sort of a Schrodinger's Cat proposition.) Perhaps because most ostensibly-seeking meaning end up settling for illusion, it has given the whole quest for such a bad name. In any event, it is the loneliest of all human endeavors. *sigh* Kasey - :smilewave
wow...although this has nothing to do with me, the timing of this post in relation to my life phase is incredible in a purely coincidental way So as a therapist and as a person I have studied context and substance in my life. I have analysed myself and others but I gotta say that lately I have changed a lot bear in mind I am NOT telling anyone that my way is better...but lately I have begun this rapid turn into the existential in both therapy and my own analysis. I have found that personally I am becoming more comfortable just living each moment and simply being. I've taken this into my clients as well lately in the manner in which I treat and talk. So yeah for me it is becoming the existence...I am not by any means giving up on my Jungian roots. It would be foolish for me to think all clients will fit neatly into one method of therapy, but in my own personal and professional life I am moving towards existing and becoming a being-in-the-world.
There is a purpose for most things, I believe. However, humans have free will and so, the choices we make sometimes are isolated, chaotic events outside of the governance of fate.
I must say booze does seem to help with anesthesizing the more tormenting realms of my brain. *is on third beer* Also, I prefer O'Neill for my agonized, besotted writer-existentialist of choice.
For me, things must have a meaning and a reason to be. I often wonder why things are the way they are, how everything come to happen, how things that are wrong for me can be corrected. I always wonder why, almost never find satisfying answers, but can't help keep on wondering. Experiences? They're all created in our brains. Meaning too if you like, but since it's more interesting, I cling to it in order to go on with my life and not falling in a state of oblivion without any will to do anything in an empty and nasty world. Most of the times it seems nothing means anything, but I need to believe there has to be something beyond to stay alive. A beautiful existentialist song sprang to my mind thinking about all of this, it says in poetry what I sometimes feel about life. I'll share it with you: The Cure - This is a lie
I like meaning but I don't see it in everything. At least I don't think everything happens for a reason. That's nonsense since I myself do alot of things for absolutely no reason~ I think for better or worse we find our own meaning in stuff.
I don't believe in any kind of meaning that exists outside of ourselves or our world. Yet I'm often preoccupied with questions of how my own actions, life, job, and habits fit into the larger social picture. For example, I work for a low wage in the retail industry, so I am helping the owners of the company get rich, and my paying taxes to a government that does all kinds of stuff I don't approve of, and does much more to serve major corporations like the one I work for than it does for the people who work for these companies under unfair terms. Meanwhile, as a complicit survivalist loaded with student debt, I help maintain this system exactly as it stands. Not trying to make this a political debate, that's just how I understand the question of the meaning of my life here—in terms of what it does for everyone else's lives here. It's very discouraging. Looking to moment-to-moment experience as in itself valuable is about the only way left to cope. I imagine that the best way to bestow value to my life would be to become a writer or entertainer, so that my work will bring that kind of engaging and worthwhile experience to others. Even if at the end of the day it's all the same, it's basically useless.
^ This is a good example of my own thought process. Multiply it to everything I do and you have malestrom. :bang:
Haha, Olivier's Hamlet happens to be one of my favorite movies--and no wonder, right? (I know, I know, it's maybe not the most faithful-to-the-text version.)