Existential Ennui (Life Goes On…)
Hi all! Yes, I know it’s been a while between posts, and I’d like to think it’s because I’ve been so incredibly productive, and in some respects, that might even seem to be so. However, I personally do not feel that to be the case. It can be somewhat disheartening to think that every day of one’s existence is spent trying to raise ourselves up a little higher (or at the very least, keep from slipping any lower), than where we were just the day before. Sometimes, it can be so exhausting maintaining the status quo that any thought of doing more than that is disregarded as being entirely unrealistic. Well, I’ve never been a big fan of reality, well not if most people’s anyway. See, reality is sort of an agreed upon concept… take for example the problem of homelessness…
In our present model of reality, the idea of a stable and comfortable home life requires that most of us maintain a continual daily routine of doing whatever is asked of us in exchange for the means to supply ourselves with basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter. But as time goes by, the cost of acquiring these things increases, while the remuneration for the things we are asked to do may not (or if it does, it may not do so in keeping up with said costs). This imbalance will often become reflected in our emotional responses and cause many of us to wish to break from our established patterns, even though doing so may jeopardize our ability to acquire our basic necessities… and so many people learn to make do with less and less and by so doing, stray further and further from the “model reality” which most of us strive to attain and then maintain. Quite literally, the less you have, the less you have to lose.
But, what if you are unable, however, to make do with less? What if after so many years of maintaining your membership within this accepted reality, you suddenly realize that you will be required to continue running upon a societal treadmill until the day you die?
For many of us, that realization would be simply too much to bear; and understandably so. None of us wishes to wake up one day, years in the future and find ourselves faced with the question of “What was the point?” only to discover that we have no answer with which we are truly satisfied. I’m writing this today, because over the holidays, a couple of people within my circle of associations almost ended their lives abruptly and I wanted to take a moment to examine the emotional aspects of existential ennui. I experience it all the time… and believe me, I get it… Life generally sucks way more than it rocks. All, I can do at the moment is try to work towards the latter while chipping away at the former one bag at a time.
Peaceful Journeys, all!
^_^