In the World with Others

The following is a quote that a friend gave me:


"Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music--the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself."

~Henry Miller

One of the things I admire the most about the philosophy of Heidegger, is the notion of this Being or Dasein, the idea that we are always and from the start already with the people, places, times and objects of our shared world. This is Mitsein, Being-with.

There is no Cartesian impasse; we are not ghosts in the machines of a body, we are not prisoners to our subjective (and rational) consciousness. Res Cogitans and Res Extensa, Descartes Ontological categories are mistaken.
(see http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/r9.htm)

There is no need to create an intellectual, rational bridge from us to the world, to others. We don't need to kick and worry how to escape from a cocoon.

Although I admire them, psychologists and authors such as Rollo May, Carl Rogers, and Binswanger are simply on the way towards Being. Binswanger felt he needed to supplement Heidegger's notion of Care with one of love. Medard Boss understood Heidegger perfectly.

Spread too thin


In the time we live in we are pulled in many different directions. The technology that was supposed to make our lives simpler, and better has instead betrayed us. We find ourselves slaves to cell phones, computers, television, i-pods and all manner of time wasting devices. Yet we still have less vacation time than any other industrialized nation.

(Not to mention the fact that as this technology becomes cheaper and cheaper as newer and newer devices and technology come out, it provides a perfect disguise for the transfer tax, the robbing and fleecing of savers, [especially including the ever dependable backbone of the country, the middle class] better known as Inflation. This is the money illusion hard at work, although this is a topic for another blog. The bottom line is that inflation benefits borrowers and penalizes lenders. It hurts savers and encourages taking on debt.)

I find that our Being is likewise over-extended, pulled in too many different directions. Our sense of presence has evaporated until being becomes nothing but a vapor, a gas. There are too many things placing a claim on our existence, which is virtually a Heideggerian definition of what Stress is. (A much superior definition of stress, overcoming all of the inherent absurdity, juggling, and inconsistency of the cartesian subject-objects, and hence modern medical and psychological views of stress)

Is there a way to cause this evaporating, ever expanding, center of ourselves to condense? Or must we always live in the manic, ever-expanding-without-limit razor's edge of the universe? Hurtling at light speed towards the nothing, or as someone may call it, Running to Stand Still.

It seems to me that the best moments in life occur not while we sprint ahead in a manic fog of confusion, chasing some illusion of progress (which may or may not be tied to a now defunct idea of the American Dream), but in those rare, quiet moments when we can afford to offer ourselves to others in a meaningful exchange, take the time to actively listen, to cultivate & grow as persons.