I've managed to navigate 80 years of life with what I think of as "cheerful cynicism." Lots of meanings tear at us, and there comes a point where you just have to laugh at the way a collection of disasters is engulfing you. I don't have to care whether life as a whole has "meaning." I've always been with the existentialists that we make our own meanings, which means being skeptical of the effect a current meaning has on our OWN lives as a whole. Embrace it or reject it--just do it with a sense of humor and a belief that you will muddle through.
Reading this, I can't help but think about a close relative which lives with bipolar disorder. With medication and by having a balanced lifestyle, they can stay stable for a while. But that stable life needs to be fulfilling and meaningful. Otherwise it is very temping to spice things up, taste the excess, lose control. That road often leads to a lot of pain for everyone, but it is really worse than the alternative?
To the limited extent that I understand bipolar disorder (i.e. not very much) it seems we could describe it as constantly steering hard to one monster and then the other... It's probably healthier to smoothly, gradually, spend some time with Scylla and then Charybdis and vice-versa, rather than switching too often? Totally speculating here
no? you said it yourself, Charybdis literally consumes years or decades of your life and leaves you with nothing, not even vivid memories. this isn’t a both sides chinstroker
Sure but you can’t live forever close to Scylla either. Life can’t be excruciatingly meaningful constantly. Anyway my other comment was clumsy and I don’t particularly stand by it
I do not think that feeling more is necessarily equal to more meaning. Also no feeling is not automatically equal to less meaning.
Feeling is a very primal reaction to event or thought. You can be overcome or stuck in a panoply of feelings and never find any meaning to them. You can suffer forever in a whirlpool of meaningless feelings.
In the opposite, you can resonate that your goal in life is to save other. Have yourself eaten by your abgnegation.
I've been reading Art & Fear and this article arrived in the right moment. Fear is the mind-killer, as our mushroom-loving writer would say, and I rather be afraid of the huge amount of stuff to be done than live in a miasma of nothingness...
I gave their names to a couple of villains in my writings. Scylla is a bloodthirsty bitch with magical powers, while Charybdis is her slightly less duplicitous brother.
I've managed to navigate 80 years of life with what I think of as "cheerful cynicism." Lots of meanings tear at us, and there comes a point where you just have to laugh at the way a collection of disasters is engulfing you. I don't have to care whether life as a whole has "meaning." I've always been with the existentialists that we make our own meanings, which means being skeptical of the effect a current meaning has on our OWN lives as a whole. Embrace it or reject it--just do it with a sense of humor and a belief that you will muddle through.
Reading this, I can't help but think about a close relative which lives with bipolar disorder. With medication and by having a balanced lifestyle, they can stay stable for a while. But that stable life needs to be fulfilling and meaningful. Otherwise it is very temping to spice things up, taste the excess, lose control. That road often leads to a lot of pain for everyone, but it is really worse than the alternative?
To the limited extent that I understand bipolar disorder (i.e. not very much) it seems we could describe it as constantly steering hard to one monster and then the other... It's probably healthier to smoothly, gradually, spend some time with Scylla and then Charybdis and vice-versa, rather than switching too often? Totally speculating here
no? you said it yourself, Charybdis literally consumes years or decades of your life and leaves you with nothing, not even vivid memories. this isn’t a both sides chinstroker
Sure but you can’t live forever close to Scylla either. Life can’t be excruciatingly meaningful constantly. Anyway my other comment was clumsy and I don’t particularly stand by it
Merci pour ce texte qui me tournera dans la tête pour les semaines à venir.
I do not think that feeling more is necessarily equal to more meaning. Also no feeling is not automatically equal to less meaning.
Feeling is a very primal reaction to event or thought. You can be overcome or stuck in a panoply of feelings and never find any meaning to them. You can suffer forever in a whirlpool of meaningless feelings.
In the opposite, you can resonate that your goal in life is to save other. Have yourself eaten by your abgnegation.
I've been reading Art & Fear and this article arrived in the right moment. Fear is the mind-killer, as our mushroom-loving writer would say, and I rather be afraid of the huge amount of stuff to be done than live in a miasma of nothingness...
I love this so much, I would rather face Scylla, too. Thank you.
I gave their names to a couple of villains in my writings. Scylla is a bloodthirsty bitch with magical powers, while Charybdis is her slightly less duplicitous brother.