The Fiction We Live.
Finally some time to write. And energy. And mindset. And overall order in my mind. I'm sitting in front of the laptop, munching on 3 day old rice with veggies, ketchup and hot sauce, having a beer on a Wednesday. Wednesday. It's half the week. And I haven't written anything for a week.
It was an exhausting week to be honest. On all levels. Certain humans causing a lot of problems by blowing everything out of proportion, rejecting any rationality and "living the moment!" because that's a great excuse for being hyper emotional and egoistical. Not egoistical, of course, but "self-centered" and all those euphemisms that new age invented to do as they please, because "you can be everything you want!" and it's that "[...] want!" that seems to be the focus.
What do I want?
A question that I questioned a lot of times in recent days. What is for me, what is good? What is right? How can I wield my power responsibly? When is a limit self-serving, when is it adequate? From Autumn To Ashes is playing in the background. Low volume, which is not how one should listen to them, but it's later in the evening and I wouldn't want my neighbor to blast Postcore Metal through the walls.
She doesn't mind.
It would be reasonable to say that she wakes me up each morning at 6am and several times in the year at 4am, as she is a very faithful person and we live in front of the church which she is very active in. I never see her walking around anymore, she's old, but to church? Each morning. Back and forth. Sometimes in the afternoon, too.
Faith.
I've always had my problems with that. It always felt like giving up my freedom and responsibility. I'm a big fan of both, and only both, only combined. I deliberately search for my responsibility in everything that happens around me, that affects me. It makes life easier for me. Sounds weird?
Taking responsibility is liberating.
First, because you don't depend on anything or anyone to blame. And then, because you can accept being a human, accept to err, and you have the opportunity to not repeat that, to improve, to work on it. You have the power. You also have the power to reflect on the limits of your responsibility. The butterfly is not the culprit of the hurricane, there are a trillion other circumstances that have to fall into place. But it had it impact. It carries a small, defined amount of responsibility.
We all define it differently.
According to the values we hold and how we estimate them. There is some faith in that. I can't be sure at all that my values are really "good". It's impossible. There is a spiritual search in that, though, excavating the values that have been drummed into us from childhood, plus instincts. That's a lot of work. But it's worth it, because there's the greatest reward waiting for us.
Happiness.
Intrinsic. Not the "I'm happy, I'm sad" one, but being able to be happy while being sad. Enjoy the sadness. Enjoy the inevitable suffering of existence. Appreciate the good times even more, having known the bad, and the bad because it can always be worse, but it will eventually be better - or not be at all. In my case, being aware of what I see as right and wrong, of what my values are, has contributed immensely to my happiness.
No matter where.
My neighbor seems to find her happiness aligned with the values of the Ecuadorian Catholic Church, or so it seems. Maybe she's just happy that there's a guideline. Someone telling her what's right and what's wrong. Not sure about her, but I suspect that way too many people are like that. Following out of comfort. Believing out of custom.
Alive out of habit.
What are your thoughts about this topic? Please feel free to engage in any original way, including dropping links to your posts on similar topics. I'm happy to read (and curate) any quality content that is not created by LLM/AI, as well as read your own experience and point of view, I love to learn!
Pictures taken with a Motorola Edge 60 Pro, I reserve the copyright - but feel free to ask if you want to use one of the pictures!
Strikes me as an easier way to live, no? Perhaps all we need to do is pick the habit and belief we feel comfortable with and leave it at that. Now, to choose...
Yeah, but then Plato's cave comes into play. once you're out, you can never go back in and feel comfortable.
Exactly. And maybe resting in discomfort and constant questioning is okay for us. Someone has to.
I honestly cant remember the last time i was genuinely happy!!
Crazy now that i think of it, i have alot weighing me down. Anyways the grind continues
Maybe try to find your part in that, your responsibility, and own it might help you psychologically. Self reflection can go a long way.
Darn good topic.
Where you write you go by freedom and responsibility, I usually say with freedom also respect is required. We mean more or less the same thing.
Usually on the 'respect' side of things, I get others to tell me that having respect is subjective and cannot be determined what is right and what is wrong, since this varies between individuals. The thought that having respect for everything and everyone is something we shall live by and do as good as we can, even when we define what respect is from our own subjectivity. I mean, certain things is simply obvious to all of us, like nobody likes to be physically abused in any way, even a pat on the buttocks of a stranger, a lady, while being in a bar or club, or on the streets. Other things may be subjective, like tell someone who is deeply religious, faith is for the dumb, religion is the biggest evil in the world, and you dont want to have anyone as neighbours who is not an atheist.
If we all would truly understand humans do like to be part of a group, humans have social needs, we will also understand we implicitly gain responsibilities (aka apply respect) towards at least the group of people we like to be part of. This includes people we know personally, but also strangers.
Individualism is good, but it becomes bad when we become selfish. Sure, we are all selfish at times, but we shall also apply none selfish behaviour or even mindset, at least as part of our existance. When a too large group of people dont do the latter, we will end up in a world were constantly 'fight' each other. In the end, this will make nobody heppy.
I'd say that taking responsibility for oneself does indeed have a lot to do with respect towards others. As well as respect towards oneself. Acting responsibly is acting with consideration. Add a little valuation to consideration, and you have respect. But that train of thought might be worth a whole post :-D
I do feel like there are some underlying rules, like laws of nature. Lewis describes them as the Tao, rules that all religion and spiritual practices (the old ones, not the new age fusion crap) have in common. One of them is indeed respect: Love thy neighbor and such. It's a lot harder to love your neighbor than your brother.
Deep spirituality is normally not the problem, according to the theory of the Tao. There is common ground everywhere where there's "good". If the religion teaches to hate, though, then it's either misunderstood or evil.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment!
Much of the core of religions is what we have in our laws as well.
Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not steal, etc etc
Agree, for another time🥳
Happiness is life, peace of mind is final, I don't joke with the two.