Posted by Lokileby at 61.mycybernet.speede.com on July 23, 2003 at 19:36:13:
In Reply to: I would like to share something with you all posted by bob_the_rather_irate_monkey on July 23, 2003 at 19:24:13:
: Hello, yes, I bob the rather irate monkey, would like to share some thoughts with you, the people of the Viewaskew Board. This happens rarely - fortunately - so make the most of it. What follows may be fairly philosophical, and not really related to Kevin Smith's films in any direct way, so my apologies in advance to those of you who can't bare to read anything that isn't about how great Kevin is (although obviously, he is.)
: I shan't get too personal here because, well, frankly, my life is none of your fucking collective business', and I don't want to aquire any more stalkers than I already have. However, I am a young man, pretty much on the threshold of life (possibly been on the threshold a little too long due to my own procrastination), and I consider myself of reasonable intelligence, and of creative disposition.
: Throughout my teenage years and into my young manhood I have been quite depressed - mainly due to being utterly consumed with what we might refer to as the "big questions". For reasons unfathomable to myself, and to those around me, I have been obsessed with knowing why I am here, what it all means - and indeed, if it means anything at all. In short, I have been searching for truth. I was raised Catholic - and can relate to many of the satirical issues raised in Dogma - and had a childhood where I was very certain of many things - of God, of afterlife, and of my life having purpose.
: Of course, as happens to many people, with age came knowledge, experience of the more tragic side of life, and the slow decay of my certainty. Childhood is a time of certainty, it seems, and adulthood a desperate attempt to try and claw back some certainty, some belief, some sense of knowing what the deal is. And this has been my obsession. To find the truth, and to understand whether I am a sacred life that exists for a reason, or whether I am biological matter, at the mercy of accident, and destined to blink out of existence as quickly as I blinked into it.
: To this end, I have read widely - much of what is considered to be the great literature of out species, watched film after film, dragged my friends to see plays such as The Iceman Cometh, poured over biographies of artists, and listened intently to the music if artists like Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen. All in the hope that in the next line of lyrics, or the next stanza of poem, the secret to what it's all about would be unlocked.
: And you know what, after it all, I was not one jot happier. Not one iota more certain or secure. If anything the spectacular array of theories and idea I had soaked up left me more baffled than ever. Wiser perhaps, more knowledgable perhaps, but not happy or certain of anything.
: My point - and the realisation I have reached that I would like to share with you all - is that you never find the answers. You can never know. Not for sure. And being obsessed with being the first to find out - thinking that you can just figure it all out and have all the answers if you read enough - well, that attitude runs you into the ground. I finally understand the story of Icarus - come too close to the gods, try to take on too much, and you get into trouble.
: Many of you will berate me for posting this, I'm certain, but I do so in case there are others out there who can relate to my quest - to who I have to say; by all means, think deeply, ask yourself tough questions - the world needs philosophers after all - but don't let it consume you. After spending so long in pursuing the "big" things - the big questions and answers - I've realised that it's the small things, the simple pleasures that makes life worth living. Taking your dog for a walk, watching the movies of the Smithster, cuddling the one you love in front of the fire and listening to the rain fall outside - whatever. Take joy in these things, and make time for them - because THEY are the things that make you happy.
: So, intellectuals of the Viewaskew board (of whom I know there are many) - go out into the world, try to make sense of it, have ideas about it, try to suss it out - but be aware that you'll never know the meaning of it all, no matter how hard you try, and that the detail, and the joy, is in the simple things.
: Godbless,
: Uncle Bob.