Imagine that you have chosen to attend the 25th anniversary of your graduation from either high school or a university. You are coming to the party with a lot of real life experiences, which may not have been fully addressed many years ago in the classroom. Then, you were unsophisticated – quite green and wet behind the ears, actually – when first entering this educational learning center, but soon, you plan to walk into the grand ballroom of those festivities with the strength and knowledge acquired through a few important lessons from the “School of Hard Knocks”.
Congratulations, you have arrived, you are a veteran, now, but how will you fit into today’s reality at that big get-together?
Naturally, you are eager to see all your former classmates. But, also, you wonder how routine events and daily challenges might have molded your classmates from the past into very different personalities, which you might only barely recognize, today. Back at the time of graduation, how prepared were you and your classmates to readily accept, with some enthusiasm, the uncertainty in the future’s unpredictable events?
Did your English literature classes, American history courses or, perhaps, Western philosophy readings serve you well in handling the responsibilities of life today?
Your spouse, three children, several in-laws, friends and a few business colleagues all pull and push you into psychological zones of anxiety (I am being kind here), which literally tear you apart. Sometimes, you feel simply worn out.
What to do? What to do?
In a case like this, some of us choose to review the choices that we made in our young and tender years with a fine tooth comb of deep inquiry. This personal review can take quite an effort even under the able guidance of a trained psychologist or social worker.
Why is life so difficult and confusing at times? Our parents and teachers should have told us the whole story, but, maybe, they, too, were confused, a bit like the rest of us?
Perhaps, they limited themselves to reading the local, evening newspaper, maybe, a novel by Pearl Buck (“The Good Earth”) or, perhaps, to the Readers’ Digest?
So, reluctantly, you might choose to reopen your library books on personal goals and motivations, which could help you stumble upon Greeks like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Herodotus or, maybe, upon Romans like Pliny, the Elder, Cicero, Tacitus, Augustus, Marcus Aurelius or another Stoic like Seneca or, maybe, Petronius.
A strong Greco-roman education can prepare today’s weary life traveler with useful warnings about daily human pitfalls that are remarkably similar to those encountered by vaunted heroes of the past. Maybe, there is wisdom in these reflections, which could make your decision so much easier to adopt?
These selected choices (all characters from the past) tell of historical personalities, who also had seen some serious troubles in their days. Back then, life could be quite dangerous for anyone, who had made the mistake of accepting the position of “chief advisor” to the head honcho of an organization , be that an Emperor (Nero, for instance) or a powerful corporate CEO, today.
This observation held true during the days of the emperors and, still, seems to hold true today during periods of corporate reorganizations or political power shifts. An episode like the “night of the long knives” has happened to many a career-minded archiever, who was naive enough to not see the sharp, glistening but hidden blades carried under cloaks in the hands of eager competitors. Beware! There could be danger out there!
Today, as a 35-year-plus or a 40-year-plus life-achiever, you face challenges, which, at times, seem quite difficult if not emotionally “discombobulating” (very hairy) to the core.
But, what about existentialism and its philosophical role in the emotional well-being of the human spirit in a new world order post the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Scientific Revolution and, finally, recent findings at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland?
Have there been philosophers and revolutionary thinkers during the past 250 years with insights and psychological clarity capable of calming our broken inner selves, today?
“Who are we? Where are we going?” – Paul Gauguin
Some names come to mind such as: Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Soren Kierkegaard, Franz Kafka and Friedrich Nietzsche, for example. A Russian novelist such as Fyodor Dostoevsky also fits in quite nicely with these other philosophers of this genre.
According to Merriam-webster, existentialism is a philosophy of life centered on the analysis of the human experience in an unfathomable universe where the individual decision-maker remains ever uncertain as to good or evil of his/her actions. Fragile uncertainties always remain as to the wisdom of our life-path.
The take-home message is summarized in that there are no guarantees, but usually only lingering uncertainties.
But, as a fallback position, the reader may wish to seek some down-to-earth suggestions found in the book by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. called “Full Catastrophe Living”, which explores: “Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness.” Delta Book, Dell Publishing, 1990.
Again, no guarantees, but a few items worth reading about.
Go in peace, all fine people of this Third Rock from the Sun!