Life can feel like a constant struggle. There is always a problem to solve, something that’s not working out the way you had hoped, or some scary choice you have to make. Welcome to the struggle bus!
The struggle bus is a place we’re all familiar with. We end up there every time we feel like we have to fight with the outside world to get what we want. Every time we engage in arguing with the outside world to change itself, particularly trying to change things that are out of our control, we board the struggle bus. Padded seats for the win!
Love and hate are human constructs. So are good and bad, right and wrong, left and right, up and down. Even time is a human construct created through our perception of reality.
If those are all human constructs and all experience is otherwise neutral, then how is experience created? Where does the idea of balance come from?
In philosophical terms the absurd is a concept that was popularized by Albert Camus. The absurd, as Camus sees it, is the conflict between a human beings’ desire for meaning and the indifferent, rather meaningless universe we live in.
The question of whether or not that’s a conflict is an interesting one to explore. Is it really a conflict? Or are we simply here to create the meaning for ourselves?
My own viewpoints have felt extreme to me for a while now. It’s something I’ve been struggling with because I’ve been unsure about what to do with them. To be honest, the more the world starts to blow up, the more far out there I begin to feel. I’ve been missing for the last couple of weeks because it started to catch up to me and I had to make myself sit with it to figure it out. Procrastination is very real and it’s also a great self-defense mechanism that keeps you stuck for a long time if you let it. Just saying… I know somebody who’s had this experience lately, namely me! ;)
The Trolley Problem is a psychological or philosophical moral debate. A trolley is coming down a track and you see that it is set to hit 5 people that are unable to move. There is a lever available to pull that would send the trolley down a different track where only one person would be hit. What do you do?
Yep! She’s going to sing at the inauguration. Every time we have an inauguration somebody is complaining about who is showing up to perform. When a Democratic president is being inaugurated, the Republicans go unfollow those musicians. Now that a particularly divisive Republican president is being inaugurated, Carrie Underwood is getting her fair share of pushback and unfollows for wanting to perform at an inauguration.
Spirituality encourages us to spend time with ourselves daily. It encourages a daily practice of meditation, journaling, yoga, or going for a walk as a means of clearing our minds, connecting with ourselves and feeling better. I don’t meditate or do yoga. I’m not committed to journaling as a daily practice, but the writing I do daily for public consumption definitely serves as a means of understanding myself and my experience better.
The new year brings a scheduled opportunity to start again, create something new, and maybe change some things. As human beings, we love the idea of a new day, week, month, or year as a reason to create some sort of intentional change.
Often those changes are self-improvement related. How many new gym memberships are sold in time for a new year? How many people try to eat healthier? How many people try to quit smoking? There are dozens of these types of self-improvement ideas out there that people try all the time.
I’ve been away for quite a while working out my priorities by deciding what I actually wanted to do versus what I thought I needed to do. Where I got to was simple – I do not want to be a social media content creator. I kept trying to stuff myself into that box. I kept telling myself that I “needed” social media to be a writer. The consequence of it was that social media became the priority and I didn’t like it, so I walked away from the whole thing, even my writing. Now that I understand that I can do this completely without social media, I’m back to writing – just writing – because that’s what I want to do.
Trump’s re-election is a call for me to come forward.
I’ve hummed, hawed, started, and stopped more times than I can count. As my views got further and further from societal norms and I saw more and more clearly what was happening, I got more insecure about what I was saying and sharing.
