Make Your Own Damn Meaning

I've finally arrived at the end of a course on Optimism and Pessimism which prompted me to continually think "deeply" about life for 16 weeks. After wrestling myself along the colorful spectrum between these two philosophical extremes (it's exhausting to feel Stoic one day and like Nietzsche the next), I've come to one firm conclusion, and that is about Love. Don't worry, this isn't your typical rant on the matter (that's what they all say).

At the end of a full semester of thinking about things, I concede to knowing nothing but what I feel. I concede to unreasonably believe in the mysterious, illogical entity we call Love and I concede to believing it makes this world go 'round. And frankly, I'm tired of all the people who are whining about the brokenness of the world but aren't trying to actively fix it, specifically by employing the means of Love.

Love is a thing of metaphysics, unlearn-able by the mind and knowable only by our human senses; and regardless of its intellectual intangibility it still remains a key player in the game of life, thus necessary to consider when discussing happiness and our will to live and act. If you're considering the state of your life (as I've been doing all semester), you can't avoid Love.

Love is capable of both greatness and horror. Love starts wars and Love ends wars. Love drives people mad and Love drives people to feed hungry strangers. It makes us want to die and to live, to create and procreate. The best thing about Love is that it's not restricted to anyone, in any country, economic class, or social circle, and we'll never be of short supply.

source: sparkyandmarie.com

Yes, Love is powerful, and it can create and destroy great things, including life itself. The Great Pessimists professed that it is only through art which we can escape the abysmal chaos of life. I say, Love is the retributive force behind such creation and escape. Our revolt against the seemingly meaningless nature of life is performed through acts of Love: Love for ourselves, for our loved ones, for our emotional experiences, for our connectedness to other people and things-- it all drives us to exert meaning onto the world through our creations.

Some think it's merely our plain unwillingness to surrender to the vacuum of supposed universal futility which drives us to create. 'I'd rather do something than nothing.' But I think it's less self-centered than that; otherwise there would be no such thing as altruism or sacrifice, there would be no continuous fight for existential answers; otherwise, those people who think our existence is only a petty rebellion against life's fruitlessness would all kill themselves instead of creating, instead of continuing to exist.

But not everyone kills themselves. Even the unhappiest of people persist. Why? Love. Our need for Love, our need to give it, our need to apply it to our abilities and to use it to realize action in the world, actions big and small. We do, we make, we live for Love. Love makes the world go 'round. 

All this babble ultimately begs the question: how are you helping to keep the world going 'round? Are you just trying to persist in life so as not to feel meaningless, just going to school and work and making frivolous purchases so that you can feel like life has significance? Are you absorbing the fruits of Love's labors but not recycling it back into the world? Or, are you forcing your own meaning into the world by actively living with reason, intent, and objective? Everyone's objective is ultimately happiness, and as Chris McCandless of Into The Wild wrote: Happiness is not real unless shared.

Don't live for happiness. Live for a happy world.

This post is for all the college grads and 20-somethings I've heard whining and complaining about not having a job, or not having a direction because the one society has given them isn't working out. The value of your degree, your job, and your life is a fabrication. You can choose to follow the fabricated values society has imposed on you or you can start creating your own value. Stop waiting for a job and go do something for the sake of doing it, for the sake of contributing to the world, for the sake of creation--for the sake of Love. Stop simply waiting for things to happen, while wallowing in a puddle of ego-induced anxiety, and get off your ass and carpe diem, kids.

Start your own project. Start your own business. Travel. Volunteer. Just don't waste any more time worrying and wondering if you'll ever have a house mortgage, health insurance, or something to boast about at your high school reunion. These are first-world people problems. You're going to die one day but the globe will keep spinning. Make yourself immortal by contributing something to the world. Make your life meaningful by creating.

Our economies are in the sewer. Our unemployment rates are devastating. Society has paved a road of expectations for you but now you feel lost. All we have is Love. Throw the map away and make your own direction.

Make your own damn meaning in the world.

 Brett Dennen: Ain't No Reason

Here are some awesome real-life examples of people (all friends of mine) who have made their own meanings in life through Love for their craft, for knowledge, for other people:


Alex Webb, 24: Alex is a self-taught micro-photographer studying biology and the history of science at California State University, Sacramento. Alex studies entomology (as well as a multitude of other relating subjects) on his own, which has enabled him to do awesome science things, like work at a local museum without his college degree yet, and attend a bug-snapping camp on scholarship. About a year after starting his micro-voyage, Alex was invited to be a part of research at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

http://www.microvoyages.net

Rachel Stroud, 24: Rachel graduated from Northwestern University in 2010. But in 2009 she started EditZING!, a "full-service editing and writing company with the aim of completing varied, professional and creative projects with breathtaking speed." Now, with a new husband, student loans, and a full-time job at a production company in Evanston, Illinois, Rachel continues her company as well as runs a sponsored yoga blog that's steadily growing in popularity.

www.aliveinthefire.blogspot.com

http://www.editzing.com

Zack Dougherty, 23: For as long as I've known Zack he's been driven to create, and specifically create his own source of income. Shortly after moving to Portland in 2010 (without a college degree), Zack founded Panoview Imaging. He is a one-man show that provides companies big and small with panoramic photography. In September he's headed to Germany to do a job. Zack's advantage, of course, is that he has the greatest girlfriend in the world who shares his love of photography and all things interesting and creative in the world (http://www.chackieee.blogspot.com).

http://panoviewimaging.com

Raphael Reuber, 33: Simply put, I can't expect everyone to be like my good German friend. If he wants to do something, he does it. If there is an obstacle facing him, he overcomes it. No money to take the kids from the orphanage surfing in South Africa? Why not just ask for help? And it's done. Raphael always finds a way to make things happen because he is fearless, resourceful, giving, honest, and persistent. He is a true example of how employing Love to carry out your actions can make motion in the world. He works full-time as a carpenter, spends holidays volunteering in other countries, and owns Daffy Boards. Check out his balance board company and his photos/videos of how his boards help surfers, skaters, and physical rehab patients from Germany to Morrocco.

http://daffy-boards.com

https://www.facebook.com/daffyboards

Angie Entwisle, 21: While simultaneously studying for a dual degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, Angie co-owns a company called Prestige Consignment. Faced with the same problem as most college students and 20-somethings (little to no job opportunities, mostly in the food and service industry, all requiring previous experience), Angie decided to do something other than spend three hours Facebook-stalking strangers. Angie creatively designed her own solution: a business that fills the needs of a small industry and its consumers, while bringing in enough cash for her to eat, live, study, and even play.

Hanna Linstadt, 22: Hanna has won a spot here for having a photo album online entitled: "Get a job? Oh, you mean go on a lot of trips! Ok!" After graduation, Hanna didn't have a job to jump right into, like so many college grads. She has spent the last few months traveling the world, getting real life education, broadening her mind, and becoming a global citizen. Yes, Hanna had some kind of means to make all this happen and you might be thinking, "but I don't!" First of all, some of you do and are still choosing to sit at home biting your nails in anticipation of the next life opportunity to hit you in the face. Those who don't have the obvious means to travel, don't just give up, Negative Nancy. Start saving your money and consider even taking one small trip. The point is to refocus your energy on something productive and stimulating that is good for your growth and for others, and to waste no more time obsessing over the status of your own life while you get buried under a pile of petty first world problems!

Make It Count

In lieu of having any inspiration come smashing into me lately, I'm going to talk about myself. Sorry, readers (both of you).  

From a young age I've had a zealous interest in… well, in everything. My soul was prepared with--no, it was soaked, battered, and deep-fried in curiosity. Yet instead of my enthusiastic interest in the world, or my eagerness to try all things, the quality apparent to many people has been that I start and stop many activities. My habits have often been referred to as "quitting."

Admittedly I used to have a hard time sticking with things due to a lack of patience and a tendency to become easily discouraged. I was young and I had much to learn. Yet there's some irony in this. The more things I experienced, the more I became familiar with what I was good and bad at, and  what I liked and disliked. The more I try the more I learn (I'm gettin' pretty smart, Ma).

I have no shame in being a serial try-er. I wear my spastic tendencies with pride. Simply put: I love the world, I love life, I'm excited and anxious to try anything and everything I'm allowed the opportunity to, and I'm never going to change my ways. This video explains it all:

Thanks, Rachel Stroud, for tipping me off to this cool video!

I Smell My Mail

Inspired by an e-mail from my grandmother, I posted this note to my Facebook today. World's longest status update? Perhaps. 

Dear friends and family,

You should know that I smell my mail. Yes, that's right, whenever I receive post--weather I'm living in Africa, Europe, or at home in California--I deeply inhale the materials that have been sent from a person I love, and I'm overwhelmed with a sense of warmth and nostalgia. Being my most consistant correspondent over the last 20 years, my grandmother sends mail with unmatchable smelly-powers.

Every time I receive a letter from my grandmother I'm moved to tears. When I talk to her on the phone I usually laugh a lot during our conversation and then depart with a big smile. But for some reason, whenever I see the unmistakeable cursive writing that is my grandma's, I can hear her voice in my head, smell the hazelnut coffee on her breath, and recall in an instant the exact texture of her skin. Her letters are living things that stir me in a way a phone call just doesn't, inexplicably so.

There's a certain rhythm to her writing, an order of events that habitually occurs in each letter. There's a greeting and a witty opening line, followed by a detailed description of the particular season hanging over Colorado (and subsequently her garden); then a summary of her life's current events, only briefly touching on the subject of her health which is always shadowed by a cheery update on my little cousins. Everything is finely laced with humor and compassion, and the letters always end with a kind of, "Must go--sending my love, Grandma." Sometimes she includes articles clipped from newspapers, comic strips, or bizarre trinkets such as buttons in the envelope with her letter.

Today I received my very first e-mail from Grandma. I'm living in France now, and while any communication from this woman feels like a winning lotto ticket to me, an e-mail simply wasn't the same. The words meant just as much to me yet the standardized font in place of her elegant script didn't galvanize my senses in the same way. I wanted to smell hazelnut coffee from the threads of stationary, and feel the smoothness of her hands through the waves of her words, each character gracefully dancing into the next; but my computer didn't offer me that kind of nostalgic invigoration.

I was still grateful to receive word from Grandma, even if digitally. I was still moved to a warm, teary-eyed state, especially at the conclusion of her message: "Sweet One, I will try to write [as in pen and paper] soon. I think of you often and send you my love."

In not-so-short, please remember this: The relatively cold interfaces of technology are extraordinary, efficient, convenient, affordable, and without a doubt enabling the world to do great things. Still, our human senses remain the vessels to our hearts. Nothing is so personal as material you've handled, embedded your scent into, and spent time preparing.

So go on, then--send me some mail to smell.

Grandma and I shopping for new glasses.

Where To Begin

We always want a place to begin and end, don't we? The thing is, life is cyclical, and the only certain beginning and ending we can claim as our own is birth and death. Everything in between just kind of flows into each other with the current of life. This mysterious current seems to propel the motion of all things in life, connecting us to everything and everyone. 

Nothing ever really stops, even when people die; life goes on, and even pieces of ourselves go on through transfered energy and DNA and whatnot. So in this sense, our motion is shared and our own personal beginnings and endings mean nothing for the world, a world in constant movement. 

These markings of time--a start, a finish--are overrated. So instead of thinking of some grandiose introduction to my newest attempt at blogging (you may understand this phrase later when you see gaps of times between my posts), I'm just going to start. 

Hardly ready, I set my thoughts aside and go.