It is a very interesting thing this “Comparing.” It is one of the greatest sources of suffering of our times. If you are not happy you are most likely comparing.

My mother was 64 years old. She struggled with breast cancer for 8 years and passed away in January. As people poured to our home, there was a theme that struck me. Most thought that she died young and talked about what could have been if she lived longer. You know, no body compared her life to a lesser life of sorts. She could have lived a life of misery, she could have witnessed the death of her children or her husband, she could have died when she was 22 in a car accident, she could have been murdered, there are so many lesser possibilities.

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This man is dying. Or is he?

From the book, Sartre for Beginners by Donald Palmer

A group of friends on vacation go for a day hike in the Alps. Half way to the mountain top, which is their goal, they turn a bend in the path and find their way blocked by a huge boulder that has fallen in such a a manner that it cannot be dislodged and cannot be circumvented. The first hiker’s stomach sinks in disappointment. “That’s it,” he says, ” The hike’s over!” …. From Sartre’s point of view, this person has chosen the facticity of the boulder as an insurmountable obstacle and chosen himself as defeated. (more…)

When I consider the brief span of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and behind it, the small space that I fill, or even see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces which I know not, and which know not of me, I am afraid, and wonder to see myself here rather than there; for there is no reason why I should be here rather than there, now rather than then. (more…)

A quote by Volataire. Regarding being a victim in life.

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

What a profound way to put it. (more…)

In every form of his being, man is related to something other than himself; as a being to his world, as consciousness to objects, as spirit to the idea of whatever constitutes totality, …. Man always becomes man by devoting him-self to this other. (more…)

Every other reality in human existence becomes what it is by its nature. The heart beats, the eyes see; it is their nature to do what they do. Or, if we take something inorganic like values, we know what the nature of truth is – e.g., to state things as close to the reality as possible. And we know the meaning, or the nature, of the value of beauty. Each of these functions in the human being according to its own nature. (more…)

It is amazing how we collapse concepts with what is real. We talk about concepts like we can touch them or grab them in our hands or see them with our eyes. I think it is the source of our poor relationship with reality and most of our suffering. (more…)

I have been reading this idea of having a purpose for my life. More outrageous, is the idea that I can discover my purpose. Like it is hidden somewhere and I can get it out. Well get ready for some existential damage. (more…)

It is tragic how few people ever ‘possess their souls’ before they die… Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.. —-

Oscar Wilde

I love to take something like Oscar said and start digging in it . I believe what Heidegger said… I think it was something like “Existential analysis has the character of doing violence, whether to the claims of everyday interpretation or to its complacency and tranquilized obviousness…” So get ready Oscar….

I am not quite sure how I cannot be the Other. The only examples of not being others are those stories of children who are brought up by wolves, none of them I believe survive well once they discover the Others…. All of us are trapped in the Others. It can be argued that even original thoughts are not original, they are built on some thought before or some connections someone made due to life experiences, some finding of one kind or another. I can imagine a 21st century teenager dropping by in to a day in the 1st. century, now there would be an original human…..

I am guessing Oscar is just frustrated with something… maybe he is watching the rest of us and believes we can do more to “claim our souls” — I would like to ask him what does a human like that look like? What does his/her days look like? Or maybe Oscar is just upset with himself… some standard he possibly set up for himself. Or maybe he showed up for himself – at the moment he said this – as a human “not good enough.” Well that is what being here is all about…. Not being good enough… We all have our projects.

We don’t have a choice Oscar… we are stuck being the Other, at best, another version or a newer one. I say enjoy it anyway.. nothing wrong with being the Other…