So. My current life. Am I satisfied with it? Are there things I'd change? Am I happy with my current lot in life? Am I happy with where it's heading? These all seem to be pretty important, relevant questions. So let's see if I can take a stab at them, and be completely honest in the process. Seems like I actually began with a more difficult question, whether I'm satisfied with my current life. And yet, it has a rather simple answer, I realize. No, I'm not. But I don't think I'd want to be, either. I don't think anyone really truly is satisfied with their life...I don't even know what that would mean, really. We always want more, and need more, in our lives and as people...it seems that the true essence of life is growth, and change, and variety. To be satisfied, would really be counterintuitive to the very essence of life, as I see it...so no, I'm not satisfied with anything in my life right now, and I can say that with complete, unabashed and unashamed honesty. Because satisfaction with life does not equate happiness in life, I think I've figured out. I think it's probably more the pursuit of satisfaction, (or, the pursuit of happiness, to quote a phrase), just the process, the neverending process, that keeps one going, and, ironically enough, as I see it--is what actually keeps one happy. . . hm. Pursuing happiness, even if you never really truly achieve whatever that may be, but simply that action itself, the action of pursuing...itself, is what creates happiness in the process. Because as I see it, even if you do achieve whatever it may be that you think would create happiness, if you were to just sit with it, and stop there...eventually, that feeling of happiness would wear off, subside, and what would you be left with but...simply a desire to try create more happiness. And it also definitely has to be a mix, always, constantly changing with the moment...but I don't mean that in a simply pragmatic sense. But yet, in a way when I think about it, it almost sort of does have to be in a pragmatic sense. Because even if you were, to a "T", try be as absolutely rational and "selfish", as Ayn Rand followers propogate is the only true way to live and be, you would still constantly be faced with whatever new struggles or unexpected challenges and spontaneous changes life and other people always seem to throw our way, and thus, would need to adjust with the moment, be pragmatic...no matter how rational you yourself may have started out or continually try to be. Objectivism just mainly makes me mad these days when I think about it, it's odd. To me, it sort of seems like a denial of reality, which I realize would be seen as total blasphemy if I were to say that to a "die-hard Objectivist" (yeah, it seriously seems like a cult sometimes), but, it just does. And maybe it's just when I see it in practice, or as interpreted by other people. I will acknowledge that for other people to strive to live their life by its principles as much as possible is simply, the closest way, and the best way, they see as trying to achieve happiness...there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I do see it as potentially polarizing, restricting, close-minded, sheltering, dogmatic, and cult-like.
snippet from Thoughts on the current state of things.
Thoughts on the current state of things.
So. My current life. Am I satisfied with it? Are there things I'd change? Am I happy with my current lot in life? Am I happy with where it's heading? These all seem to be pretty important, relevant questions. So let's see if I can take a stab at them, and be completely honest in the process. Seems like I actually began with a more difficult question, whether I'm satisfied with my current life. And yet, it has a rather simple answer, I realize. No, I'm not. But I don't think I'd want to be, either. I don't think anyone really truly is satisfied with their life...I don't even know what that would mean, really. We always want more, and need more, in our lives and as people...it seems that the true essence of life is growth, and change, and variety. To be satisfied, would really be counterintuitive to the very essence of life, as I see it...so no, I'm not satisfied with anything in my life right now, and I can say that with complete, unabashed and unashamed honesty. Because satisfaction with life does not equate happiness in life, I think I've figured out. I think it's probably more the pursuit of satisfaction, (or, the pursuit of happiness, to quote a phrase), just the process, the neverending process, that keeps one going, and, ironically enough, as I see it--is what actually keeps one happy. . . hm. Pursuing happiness, even if you never really truly achieve whatever that may be, but simply that action itself, the action of pursuing...itself, is what creates happiness in the process. Because as I see it, even if you do achieve whatever it may be that you think would create happiness, if you were to just sit with it, and stop there...eventually, that feeling of happiness would wear off, subside, and what would you be left with but...simply a desire to try create more happiness. And it also definitely has to be a mix, always, constantly changing with the moment...but I don't mean that in a simply pragmatic sense. But yet, in a way when I think about it, it almost sort of does have to be in a pragmatic sense. Because even if you were, to a "T", try be as absolutely rational and "selfish", as Ayn Rand followers propogate is the only true way to live and be, you would still constantly be faced with whatever new struggles or unexpected challenges and spontaneous changes life and other people always seem to throw our way, and thus, would need to adjust with the moment, be pragmatic...no matter how rational you yourself may have started out or continually try to be. Objectivism just mainly makes me mad these days when I think about it, it's odd. To me, it sort of seems like a denial of reality, which I realize would be seen as total blasphemy if I were to say that to a "die-hard Objectivist" (yeah, it seriously seems like a cult sometimes), but, it just does. And maybe it's just when I see it in practice, or as interpreted by other people. I will acknowledge that for other people to strive to live their life by its principles as much as possible is simply, the closest way, and the best way, they see as trying to achieve happiness...there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I do see it as potentially polarizing, restricting, close-minded, sheltering, dogmatic, and cult-like.
