Existentialism and Us
Although I was introduced to the term in college, it has been since seeing the movie, I Heart Huckabees, that I’ve been intrigued by the ideas of Existentialism. Like most things which intrigue us, it’s difficult to define but rings of truth and resonates in some inner place.
Consider this on Existentialism from Jonathan Caro:
“If, then, there are any moral codes for an Existentialist, they would boil down to three guiding principles not rules to follow, but precepts to live by. Pursue excellence in your life and actions, realizing that what does not attain excellence demonstrates a failure to create the highest value and meaning you can. Identify with your actions, make every action something that you would be proud to always claim, realizing that whenever you act against your better judgments or without being wholehearted, you diminish yourself. And strive to the highest of which humanity is capable, never settling for the merely comfortable or pleasant when humanity is capable of more.”
This hit me as a message that applies to everything and everyone - and readily to the issues we face right now in this culture, on this planet. We have willingly, though not entirely consciously, “diminished” ourselves in how we work, how we eat and live, and how we relate to each other. We have settled for convenience and ease over realism and reason. We are ruled by our basest desires yet find no joy in attaining them.
Changing our habits, our perspective, our awareness, our patterns of living and coping is not easy and that’s exactly why it is important to do so. In this challenge, we will find what we are so desperately searching for - meaning, purpose and joy. It is the things that we struggle for, things that challenge our bodies and our minds to their highest potential that move us, motivates us, fill us with meaning, purpose, commitment and joy.
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