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Monday, January 16, 2012

Demon of idealism

In the following scenario, let us define B as a friend from French class.  French is one of those things that I frequently accuse of being meaningless (or at least pointless), confusing, and often painful (see also literature, art, philosophy, psychology, and sometimes even music).  Which is obviously why I keep trying to learn and do it.

B also did not get to hear the bulk of this conversation, because I thought of it later.  He started it, though.

E: Just because I think it's meaningelss and confusing doesn't mean I won't work to be good at it.

B: A remarkably effective philosophy for surviving and thriving in college.

E: There's this pesky idelaism demon, though, that objects to my doing anything without meaning it.  Makes for a lot of rationalizing, existential crises, and internal pep talks.  Though I often wonder whether everyone doesn't experience life in much the same way?

1 comment:

  1. Meaning, points, pointlessness, and . . . pointfulness? lol Let me know if I'm missing the point completely ;) It seems sometimes like the things we do or in particular the things we enjoy doing don't have eternal effects or meaning. But my Dad told me once about a conversation with his Dad, who was getting near the end of his time. He had spent his whole life as a Ranch Hand, branding cattle, moving cattle, fixing fences, etc. He spent all day with the cows and slept next to them in his roundup bag at night. As he pondered passing away from this world, which he would soon do, he wondered about the prophets who had said that the only thing we take beyond the grave is knowledge. He had a lot of knowledge about cattle, he even knew how they thought. But he didn't know how useful that was going to be in the spirit world. Still, he trusted that Heavenly Father knew what he was doing in placing him in those life circumstances, and that if this was the experience God had chosen for him then there must have been something meaningful in it. My Grandpa passed away fairly unknown, un-educated, and still a ranch-hand, but his life was very meaningful for me. My Dad still gives me nuggets of wisdom from Grandpa that he somehow learned from cows and fences.

    Sarah shared a quote with me once-
    " Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

    Howard Thurman (1900-1981) minister, educator, civil rights leader

    So yeah ;) I don't speak french, but I'm an artist, and I would agree that must of art is pretty meaningless. At the same time, though, some of the most spiritual, meaningful experiences of my life have come through art. Some of them have come from even more mundane things- working with my Dad, shopping for house supplies, even from getting beat up in a sparring match. I would submit that everything has meaning, if we look for it. lol we may again be saying the same thing with different definition of words, but ;)

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