The Why Questions...
No blogging lately, no writing, no thinking, just been adrift. I'm just...I don't know, confused, sort of feeling pointless. Have you ever just sat down and really thought about why we are here? Where, for you, does meaning come from? Is there any purpose other than what we ourselves create? I just feel like my parents brought me involuntarily into this and everything I've done since birth has either been the result of compulsion or habit. Why are we here? Let's ask God. God?
"I'm a little busy right now, what's up?"
"What am I doing here? I don't feel like I have any purpose at all, like I'm just one of the many billions of mammals strolling around this place, grazing, lounging, not doing anything of real value."
"Matt, I made you, and I am the definition of purpose. I am the beginning, the end, and all meaning flows through me. Just by being one of my creations you are rich in purpose."
"But doesn't that, by definition, make me a circular argument?"
"Um..."
"Or am I begging the question?"
"Stop it. You're overthinking this, Matt. Just accept your place in the world. Live in the present and all these distracting questions will vanish. Trust me on this, okay?"
"You watch a lot of Oprah, don't you?
"Well...it's a good show."
"Let's take a different approach. Let's think about your first assertion. As the creator of all existence, you are the definition of purpose, it's origin. Why create anything at all, then? Why not just...be? I mean, you've told me to live in the present, but by creating a massive, intricate universe, weren't you refusing to follow your own advice? Weren't you adding complexity to a situation that was already perfect? To put this a little differently, wasn't purpose something you yourself created in the act of forming the universe, in that it must have come after the fact of your own existing?"
"Whoa, slow down there, Tex. You're forgetting something: the perception of time, and therefore of sequence, grows out of human biology. I am not limited by linear perception. I am infinite. Everthing, for me, is simultaneous. Nothing came first, then second, and, as a result, I created nothing. I simply am, Matt. When I refer to purpose, I am not pointing to something I did, something that came after my own state of original being. I am simply indicating myself, an infinite expanse of utter simplicity and perfection. And you, Matt, are a stitch in the fabric of my perfection. Oprah understands this, why can't you?"
"Wait, hold up. You say 'Nothing came first'....is that intentional word play? Do you mean that there was nothing before you, in that you are infinite? Or are you actually saying that your own being is premised upon a perpetual state of nothingness? Wait a minute...you're an existentialist, aren't you?
"Hey, Oprah's on, gotta go."
"Damn, our creator is a trickster god, I knew it."
"I'm a little busy right now, what's up?"
"What am I doing here? I don't feel like I have any purpose at all, like I'm just one of the many billions of mammals strolling around this place, grazing, lounging, not doing anything of real value."
"Matt, I made you, and I am the definition of purpose. I am the beginning, the end, and all meaning flows through me. Just by being one of my creations you are rich in purpose."
"But doesn't that, by definition, make me a circular argument?"
"Um..."
"Or am I begging the question?"
"Stop it. You're overthinking this, Matt. Just accept your place in the world. Live in the present and all these distracting questions will vanish. Trust me on this, okay?"
"You watch a lot of Oprah, don't you?
"Well...it's a good show."
"Let's take a different approach. Let's think about your first assertion. As the creator of all existence, you are the definition of purpose, it's origin. Why create anything at all, then? Why not just...be? I mean, you've told me to live in the present, but by creating a massive, intricate universe, weren't you refusing to follow your own advice? Weren't you adding complexity to a situation that was already perfect? To put this a little differently, wasn't purpose something you yourself created in the act of forming the universe, in that it must have come after the fact of your own existing?"
"Whoa, slow down there, Tex. You're forgetting something: the perception of time, and therefore of sequence, grows out of human biology. I am not limited by linear perception. I am infinite. Everthing, for me, is simultaneous. Nothing came first, then second, and, as a result, I created nothing. I simply am, Matt. When I refer to purpose, I am not pointing to something I did, something that came after my own state of original being. I am simply indicating myself, an infinite expanse of utter simplicity and perfection. And you, Matt, are a stitch in the fabric of my perfection. Oprah understands this, why can't you?"
"Wait, hold up. You say 'Nothing came first'....is that intentional word play? Do you mean that there was nothing before you, in that you are infinite? Or are you actually saying that your own being is premised upon a perpetual state of nothingness? Wait a minute...you're an existentialist, aren't you?
"Hey, Oprah's on, gotta go."
"Damn, our creator is a trickster god, I knew it."
posted by Samwick @ 4:31 AM
4 Comments:
At 2:16 PM,
Christopher said…
I really like your piece.
Whenever I listen to people (invariably men) debating the eternal questions, ending in nods of agreement, I never fail to think they are being no less ridiculous than a group of ants doing the same thing, for there may well be the odd ant down at our feet which thinks it has the questions of existence all neatly worked out.
But we would think that ant to be silly.
As ants are to us, so would we be to the Supreme Being or Whoever. We should just accept that the answers to Eternal Questions will never be reached through the intellect.
A far better way is to meditate, or to imbibe LSD, or simply to resign ourselves to Fate, and sing the words of the 1968 hit by Peggy Lee:
Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that’s all there is my friends,
Then let’s keep dancing,
Let’s break out the booze,
And have a ball,
If that’s all,
There is.
At 2:39 AM,
Samwick said…
Peggy Lee is an absurdist, who knew? Thanks for the response, Christopher, it's good to hear from you. Certainty...it's one of my least favorite traits in a person, posibbly one of the worst ever. Certainty...in religion, in politics...is a form of self-love, it's the pool into which a Narcissist stares. It's basiclly the first step in extremism and I'm sick of it, Western culture is completely saturated with arrogant pinheads who are completely certain that they understand what god wants and what the world ought to be like. It's destructive and, unfortunately, quite popular right now in terms of how we define democracy...it's a word that we've turned into a verb for war. Anyway, take care!
At 2:11 AM,
Stan said…
Hi Matt... Yes, God just is. Everything. Okay, well if he just is all the time, then he couldn't have created anything, because to create something you have to be in the now working toward the future. Okay, i'm thinking too hard. I'll shut up.
This is odd. Show's the perception one person can have of another. My idea of you was that you're heavily into politics, so now that I've finally written a blurb on politics I came here to announce it proudly to you, thinking you'll finally have a reason to visit my blog ... only to find hardly any politics and much of the kind of stuff I like, general rumination (if not illumination). I'll have to come back more often.
At 5:00 AM,
Samwick said…
Hi Stan! Thanks for the response. If you like general rumination, then that's what I'll have to focus on, you are one of my favorite bloggers. I just posted a political bit, but I'll definately put more effort into other sorts of writing. I enjoy rambling about political stuff, but I'm sort of whiny and reactionary about it sometimes...this blog is kind of like cultural therapy for me, a way to vent...but at some point I've got to focus on more serious, or atleast articulate thoughts. Anyway, it's nice to hear from you, have a good week there!
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