I’ll genuinely wonder why we are here, if other people are experiencing similar things that I am, but then I realize I simply can’t walk in another shoes and I feel powerless or something. My “too deep” thinking wasn’t even around when I was a kid. Maybe I need to distract myself. I’ve done a lot of working out in the last week and that has helped.
Does anyone else feel weak and small when they realize they can’t answer many deep questions with any degree of certainty? They say when you get older and wiser the questions disappear and you wonder why you even asked them in the first place.
I’m honored to be called upon, lol. Hey, don’t stress about figuring everything out. The brightest minds throughout history have pondered the meaning of life and other existential questions and they still haven’t found a definitive answer. So welcome to the human race, lol.
It’s natural to question things and to try to figure things out but don’t expect to get all the answers you expect.There’s just stuff in the universe that has no answer or it has many answers. It’s kind of fun to ponder things, it’s human nature. But at the same time keep .both feet grounded in reality.
I’m older than some, and not as old as others. How’s that for deep? But I still think about human nature and life. I never heard that you stop thinking about those things as you get older. I don’t think that’s true. Many of our greatest thinkers were older guys. Aristotle, Plato, Da Vinci, Hobbs, etc.
I’m egotistical enough to think I know a few things about life but humble enough to know half the time I don’t know what the hell is going on. Here’s a quote: “Life is nasty brutish, and way to short”.
And to paraphrase Arlo Guthrie as he sang in “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. Take what you want from my post and leave the rest. I have written no great truths here or great revelations but I hope a little of this makes sense.
You’re very welcome. It sounds like maybe you prefer “predictability” in life. I’m the same way. I want things to run smoothly. But if it turns into chaos I at least want a fighting chance.
don’t ask me…!! @77nick77 the wise has answered you beautifully @notmoses the gifted intellect is yet to impart.
and me dark sith the mad hamster with crazy eyes is currently busy !?!..
" now where is my nut !?! "
take care
I was never very good at existential thoughts. For me, it’s all about practical implementation. Wondering why we’re here is a way to exercise the mind, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Maybe we exist as a random chance of the universe. Maybe we’re some alien’s science expirament. Maybe a god created us through love. But for whatever reason, we are here. I used to drive myself literally crazy wondering why my life had to be filled with so much suffering for me and everyone I know. Nobody has ever found an answer that made sense to me. So I focus on how to make the most of the situation. Since we all exist, and we all have our own unique skills and troubles, we can all learn from each other, and we can all help each other. I dont care about why anymore.
In my language, we have a saying that goes something like “keep an eye on the pennies, then the quarters will take care of their own”. Which may be applied to the problem at hand as well. In the sense that, if you take care of hours, days being meaningful, maybe life as a whole will take care of itself.
I’m 57, and there are questions I still ponder that I don’t think can be answered. I won’t be specific, but I will say they are about very negative aspects of our existence. These questions are about things that pertain to life, and one has to ponder them to have an accurate vision of existence, even if it can seem morbid.
All I know is that when things started heading south in '94, I began (slowly then) to look for explanations. But not fast enough. And definitely not as fast as I was looking for escapes and distractions. (Sigh.) I began to look more ardently after my first breakdown, and more ardently yet after the second. But not nearly with so much discipline as after the worst of the breakdowns in 2002-2003.
And while I definitely understand that most people don’t need to dig as far into it as I did (and was able to do), I can say that having done so changed my life so much for the better that I am very happy I did.
That said, existentialism is fantastic stuff, but there are brands of that “product” that are obviously dangerous for those with neurotic, borderline and psychotic spectrum disorders. I stuck with the psychological existentialism of people like R. D. Laing and Irwin Yalom pretty much to the exclusion of the literary existentialism of Sartre and Camus. And tread very carefully on Heidigger and Schopenhauer. The following books were very helpful in setting me on a useful path:
Which, over time, lead me to several people who never declared themselves to be “existentialists,” but who obviously were:
Is very useful in understanding some aspects of psychosis, particularly the unreality experiences often occurring just prior to full blown psychosis. I read very little of Laing, but wouldn’t be surprised if his notion of ontological insecurity traces back to Heidegger.
=Totally= agreed. I just think Heidigger may be “too much” for a lot of psychotic spectrum patients, rather like Nietzsche and Hesse. You have a lot of recovery and can handle such stuff.
hamster with 
crazy eyes is currently busy !?!.. 
!?! "
