Nihilism- Meaning and Life+Philosophy

I just wrote a paper about how I would respond to the idea of Nihilism. Nihilism is the belief that nothing you do in life matters and everything is meaningless. I chose to counter argue with Carpe Diem. It was just a one page paper so I thought I'd just copy and paste it onto here and see what other people have to say.

Carpe Diem

In class we defined Nihilism as the belief that my life is meaningless. We went over various ‘solutions’ to this quite depressing belief, the two main ‘solutions’ are that life is not meaningless, so we have to find a meaning to it, or that life really is meaningless. I think that the best ‘solution’ or way to go about not having any meaning is to live life with the motto Carpe Diem. Carpe Diem translates to “Seize the Day.” This is a great way to not necessarily find meaning, but it kind of accepts that there is not a huge meaning to life and that everyday should just be filled with what you want to do.

I think that some people search way too hard for the meaning of life instead of just enjoying the life they have. Just like in the story of Actaeon from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, once Actaeon sees something that he is not supposed to (The goddesses bathing in the lake) He was turned into a stag by the angry goddess. It occurs a lot in The Metamorphoses that bad things happen to people who see things they either were not meant to see or should not have seen. Also from a mythological standpoint there is a beginning, middle, and end to everything. We had our beginning, we are in our middle, and we never know how close to the end we are. It could be at any moment, you could literally die where you stand. So live in the moment and be great.

A lot of people will agree that it is how brief, and fragile life is, is what makes it so beautiful. If you think about it nothing that we do on earth really even matters. Not only has it all been done before, but the amount of time and impact we can have on the earth is so minute it doesn’t even seem to matter a whole lot. That is why I believe that you should seize life day by day and make it great. I mean, why not? Why not spend the little time you have living having fun, being dangerous, and loving. Love is such a special emotion that sets humans apart from almost everything else. The ability to love separates us from animals, machines, and nature. Love is such a strange and amazingly beautiful characteristic that humans possess we need to focus more on loving everyone around us.

There is no reason to make life the best it can be, it has so much to offer and it can be great. So why not? Take every day as it comes, and have a ball with it. Life should be fun, and it is! Seize the day, because that is all you are guaranteed.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today,

Tomorrow will be dying.

-Herrick

My life as a Mythic Detective-Again

The last two days I have had the most intense most awesome s*** happen.

It started yesterday before my philosophy lecture I was doing the reading that you're supposed to do every day before class (though I rarely do). Last couple of lectures we have been talking about death and what is beyond and how meaningful life is. So reading about this really was like woah, we're talking about death in philosophy, we're talking about the apocalypse and the end in mythologies, and my first semester of college away from home is about to end. I was like holy smokes thats cool everything is piecing together -nothing to really write home about but, nice. Then when I was in lecture my professor mentioned Sisyphus and I was like "Sisyphus! I know him!"-in Will Ferrell's Elf voice. I immediately took out Ovid's Metamorphoses (Yeah I was carrying it around!!) I went to the glossary and found where he was and started looking at it a little bit while listening to the lecture, kind of, haha. We were talking about the meaning of everything, heavy stuff no? And how some people see life as a boulder being pushed by you up a mountain. How every time you reach the top mountain, or get to a peak, (peaks are accomplishments and goals you set for yourself and reach) the boulder falls down again and you start all the way back over. So your whole life goal is to get a college degree and you work for some 24 odd years to do this, you succeed, alright now what? So that was weighing on my mind a little bit I was like "I should use this in my speech tomorrow."

Little did I know it was far from over. 

This morning I woke up late, slept through my alarm, and as my room mate was about to leave he goes, "Yo! its 8:45" and in my head I was like no way, I have to be in class in 15 minutes, so I get ready for class about at the pace you would expect a sloth to move, get to class and start drinking an energy drink, otherwise I would be back asleep in no time flat. Professor starts class unusually chill, and says something like 'alright this class is going to be very abbreviated we're just going to finish up mondays section and y'all are free to go.' That was a great surprise especially since I was about one ounce of energy from just not going and forfeiting the days points. Lecture was very short, probably only like 25 minutes. Teacher evaluation done, I head to the library headphones on ready to do something. As I am walking up the stairs one of my favorite songs at the moment comes on, it's an older song by J. Cole called Cole World the first verse of the song starts as follows...

"It took me all day to find some inspiration

It just hit me like a ton of bricks, no renovation
Problem with the game now, ain't no innovation
I see my s*** all in your s***, we call that imitation"

I was like sweet I love this song, I got some inspiration, let's get down to business. The funny thing is thats actually how inspiration comes to me, out of no where like a ton of bricks. The third line realtes actually to mythologies in the fact that it's very hard if not impossible to be original. At the end of that first verse He talks about taking his money to the casino and trying to make more so he can pay off student loans, and how life is getting in the way of paying them back right now. As is the case with most people trying to pay them off with absurdly high tuition and interest. This in a few years here, is going to relate to just about everybody at this school. 

"My shows be off the handle, take the proceeds go to gamble
Ha! Bet it on black and pray, I quadruple my salary
If I win, maybe then I could pay Sallie Mae
Told her I be dealin' with some real-life s***
She be askin' "When?", b****, when I feel like it"

I sit down in my favorite spot in the library and start getting out both philosophy and mythologies work. I went back and forth on which one to start with and ended up on Philosophy, just because I already wrote my paper and figured out my speech portion for today. 

I turn to the Classical for Studying channel on my phone and open where I left off yesterday before class....

More coincidences approaching...

I never really pay attention to the songs names or what is even playing it's more just background noise to keep me focused. I thought to myself 'this song is pretty cool, I like it.' Haha half the time I dont even realize when a song starts of stops. Because I am too busy reading. I left off yesterday with one page left in the section, and somehow my laziness payed off in dividends. The whole time I am reading this page all I can think is, mythology mythology mythology. This certain page is all about how no matter what happens after death it is not the end, and the very least your body recycles and helps out the earth. This section is written by Thomas W. Clark, a Cambridge philosophy professor who write papers constantly for magazines and really everybody.

I was so excited while reading this last page, I was making connections from philosophy to mythologies to life about every other line. It took me like thirty minutes to read one page. I was so pumped about what was going on in my head, that if anybody was around they probably thought I was going crazy:) I got so stoked I paused my music for a bit and when I paused it I saw what it was titled Life and Death and the album name was New Life. Needless to say when I saw the name of the song that seemed too perfectly matched for this section when finished the page I freaked out and said "I HAVE TO BLOG THIS" then got a couple shhhhhs from people around me, being in the quiet section and all. I ran around the library looking for someone, anyone to let me borrow a highlighter so I could mark down some really sweet quotes. After asking four different people all with the response "I don't even have one sorry dude" I saw the most beautiful girl sitting so peacefully obviously studying and being very productive, kind of just stood there staring at her awkwardly for a solid 20 seconds and eventually just thought, 'Do it for Sexton!' Shyly asked for a highlighter, she ended up being very sweet and gave me one. This isn't that important except for the fact that it all worked out and I was so stoked to do this that Mythologies gave me the opportunity to talk to her and get a lovely smile haha. 

I sat back down thinking about how gorgeous she was and when I read the first line my mind was like 'forget that, look what we got here!! haha' A couple of lines that stood out to me "[When you go to sleep] a completely different person wakes up and then buy the notion that there is no real difference between death by transformation and ordinary death." Tell me that is not a perfect quote for this final stretch of this class. 

I have a couple more quotes that I will save for a surprise in my presentation today.

This post ended up being wayyyy longer than I planned but that'll happen, 

C'est la vie     

My Life as a Mythic Detective

My life as a Mythic detective started actually before I took think class, even though I didn’t really know that is what it was. Before I came to Montana I already over thought everything, I would actually make connections from just about everything to my life. Like watching a movie, or watching a TV show, listening to music, hearing a conversation as I walked by a couple people. Even if I only caught a few phrases I would relate that somehow to my life. Mythologies is sweet because I was given permission to look into everything with a keen eye and try to relate it to my life, try to find connections, and look for the origin of something. Or what lead up to this happening. How Mythology is the president behind every action, and how whatever is past, possess the present. This is great because tied with my Philosophy class there has been a lot of learning about myself and looking for core values and beliefs.

We recently started talking about personal identity, and if you can have personal identity over time. Since everything is always changing I don’t think that we are ever the same person, but every single thing that happens changes us as individuals. I love the idea that we never learn anything new, but we just have to remind ourselves about things we’ve forgotten. That actually has a lot to do with my life because my sophomore and junior years in high school I got a pair or gnarly concussions. So bad in fact that a few of my high school years have been lost to those blows to the head. I still have trouble remembering a lot of what would seem like simple things, like talking to people the day before and making plans, some days I would wake up and not even remember seeing them the previous day. So I am living the mythological way of learning, not new things, but things that I forgot and am being reminded of them.

After highschool I started having some pretty bad social anxiety, I don’t know where it came from or what happened, because I was always outgoing in school and loved to be with people and everybody at school knew who I was. This is not directly tying into Mythologies but my creation and initiation presentations were hurt greatly by what I was going through. I studied them a lot and had whole speeches planned out and perfected, but when I went in front of the class I freaked out and started saying things backwards and forgetting whole chunks of the story. Once I started linking mythologies to my life it actually helped because it made me feel like what I was going through happened to a lot of other people and it also gave me something else to think about, making better, and more positive connections to my life. One thing that is kind of funny I thought is that it seemed like most people in the class made connections to certain stories after they had read the Metamorphosis, but I think one of the things that made it hard to read was that I would come across a line in a story and it would fit so well with a memory of mine that I would go on thinking about that instead of actually paying closer attention to the story at hand. For instance, one line that caught my attention a few days ago is in the Death of Numa, and it says “What good are tears... for after all you are not the only one to find this misfortune..” This reminded me a lot about a story involving UFC fighter Nick Diaz and Spring break. 

I really enjoy watching UFC which is Mixed Martial Arts at its highest competition. George St. Pierre is my favorite fighter and he was fighting Nick Diaz the weekend of spring break, it was a really big deal and Diaz was really disrespecting George a lot. He did not show up for a pre fight press conference, and it pissed a lot of people off. I looked into him and found out that he has really bad social anxiety, and immediately there was a sort of connection, I follow St. Pierre a lot and I watch a lot of pre fight press and hype videos along with their interviews. I really don’t like Diaz at all, but it seemed like we kind of went through the same things. He without telling anybody and with no explanation didn’t show up for a huge press conference a few days before the fight. That is a very big deal, later I found out it was because of his anxiety, so I was not really mad at him anymore I kind of felt bad and knew what he felt because I also just skipped out on class the day of a presentation and I knew it was important I just couldn’t get myself to do it, I just stayed in my room all day and did not talk to anyone. I have been gradually getting over this ordeal, but when after this fight it really kick-started me to being more normal again. I watched good versus evil and good prevailed. As we all know you never talk bad to a god and tell him you are better than him and are going to kick their ass. George St. Pierre is as close to a god as you can get in the UFC and I watched him beat Nick Diaz’s butt for five rounds. After watching that and connecting to my issues and Mythologies connection, it really helped me get through it because it seemed like I was GSP and I was beating down on my little anxiety problem (Nick Diaz).

Going back to the beginning of the semester, I did not think I stood a chance in this class because everybody seemed so much smarter and seemed like they all had more experience in the english field and with literature. Which they did, and still do. The class seemed like it was going to be a struggle the whole year, but once we got our first assignment (post a picture hugging a tree) I was like ‘I can do this! haha’ and I did, I struggled a little bit, but soon I realized it was not about memorizing every single thing that was said and read. It’s more about learning and understanding how important mythology is and how it can connect to everybody’s life. At one point we learned that there is no such thing as an ordinary day (very true). There are no ordinary days, ordinary implies to me that it happens over and over again. But since everyday is different, everyday is extraordinary. I strongly believe that every single thing that happens to you will change your life at least slightly. Even if you just hear something subconsciously it will get into your brain and impact something down the road. Everyday and everything you will ever do is extraordinary, because no one can do it like you and it will ever be done again. Especially if you think of everyday and extraordinary or think about mythology, you will not only make it that way, but also learn a lot about yourself and become more in touch with the world.

Music has a ton of connections to everything under the moon, and even beyond, if you are aware that is. All you need to do is pay attention. The end is never truly the end, it is the beginning of something new. I’d really like to end on this section because it is very true. It is very cliché but when one door shuts another door opens. I wish I could realize this more because every time you finish any aspect of your life, a new adventure begins. I just started this semester here in Montana and the door in Seattle is not closed but this is definitely a new adventure. Just how Jennifer is graduating this May, this chapter is over for her, but the next one is unwritten and a canvas for anything she wants her life to become now. The artist Common said it best, “The end is never the end. A new challenge awaits. A test no man could be prepared for. A new hell he must conquer and destroy. A new level of growth he must confront himself.” The end is never the end, and the beginning is never truly the beginning.

Class Summary

This class really scared me at first because when I walked in it was one of my very first classes in a real college away from home, I saw a bunch of older guys who looked and talked a lot smarter than me. BUT I also so a bunch of beautiful young women, so I decided I could stick it out and see what Mythologies is all about :) Thank God for pretty girls 'cause this class has meant so much to me, not only have a learned more than I predicted about Myths and how many ways we can go with that, but it also helped me grow as a person. I came to college with the sole intention of getting away from home and getting a boring degree that will help me make a lot of money in the future. Mythologies changed me in that way because I had no fun learning in high school, but this class was so intriguing that I actually cared about what Professor was talking about and everyday we talked about something that either was related to my life or was so interesting that I didn't even care. I read most of the Metamorphoses, but how much I actually retained-who knows. The book was mostly interesting, some stories were just not my cup of tea. 

Thank you Professor Sexton. You really helped me enjoy my first semester being away from home, and this class has impacted my life more than anyone will ever know, including me. 

    

Fredrick Turner

This post is pretty delayed but listening to Fredick Turner two times was very special.
I took some notes during his talk at the Hager Auditorium and his poetry and the way he read it was just beautiful. In Credit Card there were a couple lines that I wrote down because I liked them very much, he said "The Cosmos is a chopped up credit card" and that he "found the key unlocking worlds of light." Also he wrote a really interesting poem titled Bonds and Stocks which was forgetting all about capitalist things and money and getting more in touch with nature and the beautiful earth we live with. That seems very connected to the mind set in Mythology and sort of MSU in general, I saw a quote near the library that goes something like "Our students will leave Montana State with a better understanding that the pursuit of knowledge is far greater than the pursuit of profit." Makes you really wonder what is important in life, is it just making as much money as you can while you're here, or do we want to enrich our selves and the people around us by growing a greater understanding of the world around us and remembering all that cool stuff that we have forgotten to remember throughout the years and our birth.

His poem House of the Colonel had two lines that I wrote down to remember one, "As if they needed new words for hell and heaven" and "All sad things must end as they began."

"I just want to grow up to be young..." This was probably my one favorite line and it made the most sense to me and really made me think. It sounds cheesy but it actually probably changed my life because right when I heard that I couldn't get it out of my mind, and I started thinking about what I want to happen when I grow up. It all made sense that all the things that I want when I get older are what kids and young people either want or have. I want to be healthy, have a boat, wakeboard and ski all day, have a place in the mountains I can go to get away and go skiing and snowboarding. Just like a kid I want a lot of toys and to be carefree.

I think that most people in the world want to grow up to be young because being young is the freaking best.

Spinners painting Diego Velasquez

Looking at this painting it seems to have multiple connections. I am not that into art and havent spent a whole lot of time analyzing... any really. But why not, here we go.

The background of the painting is more interesting to me personally because I like the way the light is coming through thewindow onto the painting and what seems to be athena goddess of war in her helmet. Also the blus tapestry that I am assuming is Athena's weaving that is hanging up in the back is cool with her admiring it. The foreground doesn't do a whole lot for me but the red curtain on the left is interesting because obviously we want to know whats behind the curtain, but I think that might kind of be a reference to not looking to deeply into things especially that of the gods business because we have come to know that, that does not work out for anyone, ever hah.

Signs and Symbols

When I first read this story I didn't see that there were three pages for a few minutes hahaha I was trying to find what everyone else was talking about, looking on google for a different version and scrolling through all of the other blogs trying to piece this together... =P But after I found the next page button small as it may be everything everyone was saying made much more sense, duh.

Getting to the story, obviously the whole piece is filled with signs and symbols, imagine that! But I'm sure I missed more than I found. I feel bad for the parents as I am sure most do, but I am also happy for them making the decision to bring home their son. When the phone rang for the first time I was almost 100% positive it was because they had lost their son. When it rang the second time I was a little less worried for the family because that was too coincidental to be a different person on the line. Professor said that if something happens once it is chance, if something happens twice it is coincidence and if something happens three times it is design (mythology) I dont remember if it was because of this Nibokov story he said it but it fits with the phone calls for sure.

The way that the piece kind of left you hanging and wondering what happened I liked because you kind of get to choose 'your' own destiny on how you want to interoperate the piece. It reminded a lot of the movie Inception because at the end of that movie you kind of get to decide for yourself if he was still dreaming or if it was in fact real life. Also the dream within a dream fits a little into this story because there were a few mini storys that did not seem to fit in, and did not seem to be of much importance but I am sure that is just because of my ignorance, just like the movie little pieces that seem obsolete can make it that much more interesting after you figure them out.

The connection from Ovid to Nibokov was to Icarus and Daedalus because the son wanted to fly, and the father wants to free him. It could maybe have a slight connection to Phaeton's ride because the son wants to fly and I guess you could say the father wants to free him in that story too, but he more just wants too protect him. I think an argument could be made for either but Icarus and Daedalus story might be a little bit close of a connection.