the metaphysical conundrum

we are back to the old dichotomy of being and doing

what is meant by this?

why consider being at all?

what we do is who we are?

are you prepared to live by that statement?


i am not

a pervert or a murderer is acting out of some
very distorted emotional and mental principles

i think it is safe to say that

the actions of either are not directed to anything good
other than perhaps a mometary rush of pleasure
or something like it

i would contend that authentic pleasure carries with it
something enduring something deep
moral corruption is fed
by the impossibility of satisfaction

someone stuck in a miserable job with no chance of
escape is doing only doing
chances are the mind of the person is preoccupied with
the thought that life is somewhere else
life is passing him by
is troubled with questions of being
who am i?
how did i get to this point?
what is the meaning of life?
do i know myself?

i am thinking of the protaganist
in evan s. connell's book "diary of a rapist"

crisis plays a role in bringing around the
questions of meaning
now this statement can be interpreted
by degrees of extremes
some crises are more poignant than others
the crisis of ethnicide for the armenians
or the jews
must be regarded as more extreme
than the broken heart of a teenager

for the jews of the 20th century
there has been a definite coming to terms
with personal religious and national identity
and perhaps the new formation
in the post ww2 world has done something
by way of forcing the issue of being in the world
being that is defined by either a deeper sense of
religious identity or an escape into a practiced negligence
as offered by the humanist world of our day
or something in between

a broken heart however is a different matter
one's personal identity is assaulted
one is forced to enter the dimension of darkness
where one once found meaning now only pain exists
pain and loss
in order to successfully negotiate beyond the turmoil
a person must face the question
is the meaning of my life to be determined by one other person?
the crisis seems to be
"my being was somehow deeply acknowledged by another
i was affirmed and this gave me a tangible connection with meaning
in the world"
now this connection is no longer viable
does that mean that meaning is impossible too?
sadly some never get beyond this

illness can have a similar determination
when we are ill we are reduced to a self awareness
that is defined by the illness
my being is ill!
to grow beyond the effects of illness then
is a way of renewing one's true sense of being
perhaps we don't say it
but to acknowledge a return to good health
is a way of saying
my being is of utmost importance
what i do is secondary

the only real tragedy in the world
is that individual persons
are not granted the acknowledgement of being
it is the source of all narrative
all narrative worth the telling

the philosophical crux is the crux of knowing
doing and being
those three epistemological elements
do come together
in the creation of art
in the act of prayer
in the generation of love between two people
in the pursuit of intellectual goals
in the simple amusement of reading

in the crisis
we are moved to be
or not to be

that is the question