The world is shocking. No, it is people who are shocking.
I expect few to understand this, and many to critique it, and perhaps one or two among us to fully understand and exploit what I am about to share with you.
Let me explain.
I was sitting in a cafe, quietly reading my book, when I couldn't help but notice a pretentious couple pandering to each other at the table next to me.
From what I gathered, they were college professors. A man and a woman in their 30s or 40s.
The woman said "I was sitting there, watching this movie, this incredibly moving movie, and I turned and said to my sister, I said, why can't we all be like this -- why, when we are bombing Iraq to hell, draining billions of dollars into a nothing, why can't we put all this to good use. Why can't we build schools. Really help people, you know."
The couple leaned in closer, and chuckled at eachother, the way people do when they agree with one another and wish to fill the air with the emotion of agreement.
The man said "all these corporations, and the government, they ought to be helping people. We ought to be helping people. Giving them things. These people are so helpless. They cannot help them selves."
"Yes, I know," she replied "they can't lift themselves up by their bootstraps. Not with the way things are in the world."
They sighed together.
By this point, I was becoming angry. These were supposedly enlightened people -- and they were casting judgment on strangers they do not know. Worst yet, they were casting judgment on figments of their imagination, their uppity anger. They were pandering at shared ideals. Ideals based on condescension.
I returned to my book, trying to calm my thoughts and focus.
But, the woman spoke loudly again.
"After all, we're all just trying to figure things out," she said "that's the purpose of life -- to find meaning in things."
This made me even more angry. But the irony is, even as much as I detested their words, they made me realize how much I detested what I was doing at that very moment.
I wanted to say to her, no, I wanted to scream at her: " Words, language, understanding -- none of it can exist without the physical, material world. This cafe, our coffee, the chairs we are sitting on...that is what is real, that is what understanding attempts to capture.
"Don't you see, meaning is an empty shell! It cannot exist without the physical. And if you are throwing your life at understanding, then you are throwing it at the mere definition of life, and not life itself.
"If you want to throw yourself at life, then throw yourself completely into the physical, material world. It the concrete material world that has meaning, that creates understanding, that creates life, and all of its pleasures.
"And if you want to get down to it, if you accept the fact that everything physical, everything real in this world, is in motion, is moving, is movement, then you must accept that the only purpose of life that can exist is motion. And it is motion that is the core of meaning.
"Motion is the only thing that matters in life. And in our hearts, and our souls, in the physical, and the metaphysical, our lives are defined by the motion that surrounds us, and the motion that we create.
"But as you sit there, complaining about the world, you're not creating a damned thing. You are wrapping yourself in a shell of empty meaning, pandering the same negative complaints to yourself over and over and over. If meaning is at the core of your life, you may as well be dead. You are an empty shell.
"If you really want to help people. If you really want to change things, then you must be greedy in the purest physical sense. You must MOVE the material world with the power of your individual self. You must shape the world to your unique vision."
But I did not say that. And I detested myself for it. I detested my lack of action. My hypocrisy at doing nothing, and letting the movement of the world control my every action.
I returned to my reading. Lost in the shell of ideas. Hopelessly feeling guilty about my stagnation in life.
I expect few to understand this, and many to critique it, and perhaps one or two among us to fully understand and exploit what I am about to share with you.
Let me explain.
I was sitting in a cafe, quietly reading my book, when I couldn't help but notice a pretentious couple pandering to each other at the table next to me.
From what I gathered, they were college professors. A man and a woman in their 30s or 40s.
The woman said "I was sitting there, watching this movie, this incredibly moving movie, and I turned and said to my sister, I said, why can't we all be like this -- why, when we are bombing Iraq to hell, draining billions of dollars into a nothing, why can't we put all this to good use. Why can't we build schools. Really help people, you know."
The couple leaned in closer, and chuckled at eachother, the way people do when they agree with one another and wish to fill the air with the emotion of agreement.
The man said "all these corporations, and the government, they ought to be helping people. We ought to be helping people. Giving them things. These people are so helpless. They cannot help them selves."
"Yes, I know," she replied "they can't lift themselves up by their bootstraps. Not with the way things are in the world."
They sighed together.
By this point, I was becoming angry. These were supposedly enlightened people -- and they were casting judgment on strangers they do not know. Worst yet, they were casting judgment on figments of their imagination, their uppity anger. They were pandering at shared ideals. Ideals based on condescension.
I returned to my book, trying to calm my thoughts and focus.
But, the woman spoke loudly again.
"After all, we're all just trying to figure things out," she said "that's the purpose of life -- to find meaning in things."
This made me even more angry. But the irony is, even as much as I detested their words, they made me realize how much I detested what I was doing at that very moment.
I wanted to say to her, no, I wanted to scream at her: " Words, language, understanding -- none of it can exist without the physical, material world. This cafe, our coffee, the chairs we are sitting on...that is what is real, that is what understanding attempts to capture.
"Don't you see, meaning is an empty shell! It cannot exist without the physical. And if you are throwing your life at understanding, then you are throwing it at the mere definition of life, and not life itself.
"If you want to throw yourself at life, then throw yourself completely into the physical, material world. It the concrete material world that has meaning, that creates understanding, that creates life, and all of its pleasures.
"And if you want to get down to it, if you accept the fact that everything physical, everything real in this world, is in motion, is moving, is movement, then you must accept that the only purpose of life that can exist is motion. And it is motion that is the core of meaning.
"Motion is the only thing that matters in life. And in our hearts, and our souls, in the physical, and the metaphysical, our lives are defined by the motion that surrounds us, and the motion that we create.
"But as you sit there, complaining about the world, you're not creating a damned thing. You are wrapping yourself in a shell of empty meaning, pandering the same negative complaints to yourself over and over and over. If meaning is at the core of your life, you may as well be dead. You are an empty shell.
"If you really want to help people. If you really want to change things, then you must be greedy in the purest physical sense. You must MOVE the material world with the power of your individual self. You must shape the world to your unique vision."
But I did not say that. And I detested myself for it. I detested my lack of action. My hypocrisy at doing nothing, and letting the movement of the world control my every action.
I returned to my reading. Lost in the shell of ideas. Hopelessly feeling guilty about my stagnation in life.
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