I am indebted to Peter Fiekowsky and to
Robyn Symon
who inspired this conversation and contributed material.
Life keeps on turning out all by itself the way it's been
turning out all by itself for millennia. My input isn't required. No,
my input doesn't matter at all. I don't make any difference.
Things just turn out the way they've always
turned out anyway.
Why
do anything? In any case, I have no control over any of it. So
why
bother?
It's an existentialism thang. All of the above are
characteristic of a malaise which could be called "existential
angst".
To a child, it may not sound like much fun being told to go outside
where it's windy, and
play
with sticks, some paper, and a piece of string. But if we add the
context
"fly a kite" to the suggestion, it bodes hours and hours of pure fun
and pleasure. The
context is decisive.
The same suggestion made without the
context
ie the same suggestion taken out of
context,
is found to be lacking. When something is taken (quote unquote) "out of
context"
it's likely to be misleading, that is if it isn't outright
misunderstood. When the same content (wind, sticks, paper, string) is
considered out of
context,
it doesn't sound like much fun. When it's considered in an appropriate
context
("fly a kite"), entirely new possibilities come
alive.
When expressed as content, the idea that life keeps on turning out all
by itself the way it's been turning out all by itself for millennia,
has one implication which may indeed invoke a certain ennui, an
existential angst ie the malaise which asks "In that case,
why
do anything?
Why
bother?". But notice what happens as soon as it's expressed as
context.
In the
context
of "life turns out the way it's always been turning out", I'm left with
a profound opportunity for enormous
personalfreedom,
an opportunity to live a life of choice and
creativity.
The
context is decisive.
In the
context
of "life turns out the way it's always been turning out", there's the
possibility of choosing and of being
creative,
of independence and of
Self-expression.
Then instead of evoking angst, "life turns out the way it's always been
turning out" becomes a
background,
a backdrop, a stage ... all of which goeswith
(as
Alan Watts
may have said) the possibility of me being an
actor
on the stage rather than merely sidelined as an angst-ridden victim of
circumstance.
Wow! Look what just happened: I'm inspired to
act
- by the same condition that once immobilized me. All I did was
distinguish a
context.
And the
context is decisive.
So life keeps on turning out all by itself the way it's been turning
out all by itself for millennia, and if I don't have that as a
context,
then it all
devolves
into content. And if it's
devolved
into content, the likelihood that it can be counted on to provide what
I want, is slim to none. As
Robyn Symon,
Emmy award winning producer of
Transformation: The Life
and Legacy of Werner Erhard,
says: "Don't expect someone to knock on your door and say 'Here's a
million
bucks.
Go make
your film.'."
She's bang on the
money
(no pun intended). "Life keeps on turning out all by itself the way
it's been turning out all by itself for millennia" doesn't mean what
will turn out is someone knocking on your door offering you a million
bucks
just in time for you to make that film you always wanted to make but
didn't have the
finances
for.
We're
free
to
create
and we're
free
to choose and we're
free
to take the initiative and we're free to
act
... and ... life keeps on turning out all by itself the
way it's been turning out all by itself for millennia. It's both not
either. In the absence of having life be an
empoweringcontext,
it
inexorablydevolves
into angst-ridden content.