"Friedmann was fascinated by Einstein's theory and threw himself into studying it with his usual intensity. 'I am an ignoramus,' he used to say. 'I don't know anything. I have to sleep less and not allow myself any distractions, because all this so-called 'life' is a complete waste of time.'"
This quote epitomizes one half of my feelings on life. It's completely absurd -- we can contribute to our given society, sure, but if society weren't here to begin with the world would be just as well off. You're thrown into needs, desires, oxygen and water. You're not given a reason. You have about 80 years, if you're lucky, to "do something" with your life. Might as well work like hell, eh?
But another part of me wants to block out the "haves" and "needs" and focus on what feels right in the moment. Or at least embrace society's chokehold and twirl it around in a waltz. I want to be carefree and superexciting. I always think of two people when contemplating this type of life: Carrie (from Sex & the City) and M.I.A. Laugh all you want, but they wear great clothes, lead great lives and, generally, are just really great.
So I could sit in the middle of these paradigms. Seems like an easy solution, and one I think most follow. However, the middle of drastically driven and drastically carefree is averagely normal, and we're back to where we started.
I could probably contemplate life for my whole lifetime. I wonder what that could contribute.
But maybe we're all going about this wrong. Maybe we're not here to make contributions. The universe is millions upon fucking millions upon millions of years old. I can't fathom it. Surely there have been societies before our known society, and in places other than Earth. They've been destroyed, recreated, reinvented, reached their peaks, destroyed. Maybe we're just here for the ride. No reason, no necessity -- just to be here.
There are some really smart old men sitting at the other table. They're throwing out Mark Twain and "arbeit mach frei," Jane Austen, the Wall Street Journal and cooling off with a nice baseball talk.
The second table in Global Village is a wonderful place to people watch.
It's also a nice place to down double espressos like it's your job, and then chase them with chai.
It's a nicer place, still, to contemplate life and blog about it.
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1 comment:
your posts make me want to actually become a blogger and sit in cup of joe and drag out my old philosophy notes. and that's a pretty awesome thought.
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