Entropy
We are born - we develop – we fall apart. Pretty efficient isn’t it? We grow to be useful and reproductive in our prime and then slowly break down. We all have an expiration date somewhere...in our eyes, voice, skin. Character. There is something out there that holds us together...keeps the energy form dispersing too quickly. Conservation? Reuse? Moderation...balance? I am getting tired of trying to achieve balance...it seems to be the only thing my mind and body want to do.
“All things in moderation...including moderation itself” ?
But why? For good measure...or because we need it. To serve our impulses or for the good of life? The good of life...? Doesn’t that lie in serving our individual interests?
Questions.
Entropy is to be expected. But how to we live with it? Embrace our decline? Or fight it? What for?
A quote comes to mind in the midst of all these questions...
”He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool.”
And another...
“You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life”
Both written by Albert Camus.
So what do we do?
Photo by Emily Sawtelle
posted by Esteban at 6:21 PM
7 Comments:
"Embrace our decline? Or fight it?" I say embrace it. I think the biggest reason people fight it is because it is such an uncomfortable thought. But why is it an uncomfortable thought? I think it is because it relates to death, and people fear death, because people generally fear the unknown. I feel like I've gone through these similar questions before.. and have grown comfortable with the fact that we all fall apart and eventually stop functioning. "You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." I think this is somewhat true.. when people say "the meaning of life" it seems like such a concrete phrase.. like there is one big meaning. The importance of the human experience is not only appreciating the whole but all the parts.. coming to terms with our own humanity.. experiencing what we can before our physical and mental states deteriorate.. not sitting around and dreading or fearing the inevitable. I know exactly where this rant can go, so it’s just going to stop now.
The uncomfortable thought for me is not so much my inevitable death but my seemingly unavoidable uselessness.
“Coming to terms with our own humanity...” isn’t that part of the whole “meaning of life” thing?
Why else would we search for “the meaning of life” if not to grasp our own humanity? I don’t think the two thoughts of life and my own life can be separate. We really search for the meaning of our own life...I would say that in the end it is all we really want to know.
Who am I? Why I am alive?
Is Camus saying “don’t worry about why you are alive...just live”?
This would trouble me...
Esteban. I'm trying to find you. If it would help you deal with your seemingly unavoidable uselessness then email me, cause that would be highly useful. Feel free to hide this comment... you seem to be good at hiding things... ;) love.
yeesh. expect an email soon
You are very hard to catch.
I am going to sleep now.
Speak soon, I hope.
hmm
"To know oneself, one should assert oneself. Psychology is action, not thinking about oneself. We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die."
Albert Camus
through further investigation it is clear that...
the previosuly posted quotes were taken slightly out of context...this one stands alone with more ease...and doesnt trouble me. good.
Sorry i dont think im following you...
“Just as the Stanger accepts his death, greets it with a sort of ironic anticipation, relief, we must accept our "entropy" and live each moment to its fullest, attempting to make something of our present selves, rather that preparing ourselves for some non-existant afterlife (in the relgious sense) or some transcendent truth (in the platonic sense).”
Did you mean “rather than preparing ourselves” ?
and if so doesn’t Camus state in the Myth of Sisyphus that the transcendental action lies within this “attempting to make something of our present selves”?
It is clear that Sisyphus should not sit at the bottom of the hill pondering whether he should push the rock up or not...but isn’t his choice to keep living in the moment despite the consciousness of his plight the transcendent truth that make shim the Absurd Hero?
Postar um comentário
<< Home