Tapping into awe and intrigue to cope with the unique pains that is for us humans
Our animal brothers have the same rise and fall nature in their dna but do not recognize it and so do not stress about it. They also do not have abstract thoughts and goals but instinctual drives, so obviously do not stress about the trajectory in where they are going in life while they get to live. It is easy to envy the animals in this regard but they also do not get to manipulate their environment so much or appreciate the multifaceted nature of great art, so at most they tie with us when appreciating a sunset but I hunch that we can appreciate these simple things too more for some reason. Hanging out in a bar with great lighting, music, art, a strange exciting mix of people, pinball, chatting with random people who mostly are trying to live in the moment and when you earnestly probe past the silly jokes you often end up uncovering a drug addiction and some personal tragedy's and an uncertainness towards whether or not they’re living well or will be living well in due time and what the hell do you really want to do with your life because this routine is becoming rather dull if we take out the neurological altering substances. But when you walk outside and you notice that you are cold but can go back inside and see the moon and think of neil armstrong or something you feel that there is some sort of potion that has been made to redeem the cynical take on human existence. and those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. You try to get yourself in order to excel in this domain and then you realize after months that you have failed so many times at getting yourself in order to the degree that one has to in order to excel truly in the domain of choice and you just want to take a break from it all but that is also for those who do not excel in the domain. You question perhaps before or after the excelling whether or not this is a domain worthy of spending all your time on in this limited existence. You hear of a loved one die or be in the process of dying and then you want to throw the laptop in the river and live in the moment or real life or some shit but you end up only spending a small percentage of that time with loved ones and an even smaller percentage of that time being nice or someone that someone would enjoy being around because were all stupid and egotistical and then you find yourself rationalizing laziness and indulgence in seek of some kind of spiritual philosophical enlightenment aha moment in order to achieve happiness and you end up just being lazy and spending too much money on overpriced coffee and probably worse drugs and tweeting a bunch of dumb shit that you will cringe at years later if you end up getting yourself in order and don't delete the account. This kind of thing, just reflecting on this absurdity of the different directions that trying to live well can take us on is entertaining to me and maybe it is entertaining just because it has to be. A good perspective is better then a bad one and lets not play with ignorance. These are memeified generalizations of course, I do believe you should throw a well calculated shot at what you think living a good life will be and will mostly likely end up living quite well through the uncertainty because you know its your best shot and that's better then not shooting at all. There’s no such thing as a perfect life, life isnt a disney movie, and even being perfectly content with what you have there is still evolutionarily designed stressors that arise on a day to day basis for reasons to help us navigate through the unsafe waters of maintaining living and evading dangerous circumstances. I believe this is where philosophy saves us from the existence of human annoyance. You catch a cold, you get flooded with tasks at work, you struggle to live with yourself because of the terrible things you’ve done in the past, a loved one dies, you get broken up with, your injury never healed properly, your back is fucked up cause you’re an idiot who sat with bad posture for the last 8 years and never stretched or exercised at all for that matter. You logically can put together why this situation has come to be but it still just sucks on a moment to moment basis when your attention is placed on the shitty thing. My favorite non fiction book is Victor Frankl’s man’s search for meaning, and in it he recounts his experiences as a prisoner in the concentration camps at Aushwitz. I’m not going to do it justice so just read it if you have the stomach and the yearning to make sense of these problems, but instead of it being a sad read it gives me tremendous strength and hope. I know that if I can become half the man that Frankl became under his conditions, I can handle any turmoil that life has to give me and still be able to hear glimpses of the music in the worst of times.
yall know this is just my opinion right? actual smart people who arent mentally ill just pursue engineering or finance and call it a day after with fine dining
