The blog of a North Country Swede!

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Learning to live in the world

There are some basic things to think about.

One of them is that I experience my world as ongoing. Today arises out of yesterday and proceeds into tomorrow. I imagine that if the chain of events ever stopped, there would be nothing. Thus, I imagine that because there is something, it is eternal.

Is there really something or is it a mirage? Ah, even a mirage would be "something". I think, therefore I exist, as in the translation of Sartre's quote of Decartes', Cogito Ergo Sum ... I think therefore I am.

Another thing, I existed before I became aware of my existence. And my earliest observations were of others explaining my world to me as I went about discovering it. Before I ever felt the joy or pain of my own explorations, I was directed through my world by the physical expression of freedom or restraint of others in my life. I was informed by others—whom I had no reason to doubt—of what was beneficial, nuetral, or harmful.

As my consciousness was formed, I was forming the emotional bonds and barriers with my world based on the emotional bonds and barriers of others. Thus, when I became aware of myself, I experienced these bonds and barriers as a natural part of me.

This sense of who I am, joins me to the others in my world ... and separates me from most of the others in the world.

I must live within my world, and learn how to live in the world.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

The other person

Do I view the other person with fear (and its companion emotion, hatred) and try to control her or him by force?

Or do I view the other person with compassion (and its companion emotion, love) and try to show him or her by example?

I choose the latter. And in this I find that the metaphorical example of Jesus' life serves me well.

I also choose to be an existentialist.

Therefore, I am considering whether or not I should call myself a Christian Existentialist.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Am I a Christian Existentialist?

Am I an atheist who is a Christian Existentialist?

I have been reading Sartre. Specifically--for purposes of this discussion--I have been reading a translation of Sartre titled, EXISTENTIALISM AND HUMAN EMOTIONS, and, quoting the publisher's notes: "The section on 'Existentialism' is taken from the book of that name, translated by Bernard Frechtman; all other selections are from Being and Nothingness, translated by Hazel E. Barnes."

Sartre writes, "To be man means to to reach toward being God. Or if you prefer, man fundamentally is the desire to be God."

I am immediately plunged into the consideration, What God do I want to be?

But in that swirl of thought, I consider this from Sartre, "... through the I think (; therefore I exist) we reach our own self in the presence of others, and the others are just as real to us as our own self. Thus, the man who becomes aware of himself through the cogito also perceives others, and he perceives them as the condition of his own existence. He realizes that he can not be anything (in the sense that we say that someone is witty or nasty or jealeous) unless others recognize it as such. In order to get any truth about myself, I must have contact with another person. The other is indispensible to my own existence, as well as to my knowledge about myself. This being so, in discovering my inner being I discover the other person at the same time, like a freedom placed in front of me which thinks and wills only for or against me. Hence, let us at once announce the discovery of a world which we shall call intersubjectivity; this is the world in which man decides what he is and what others are."

What comes to mind is that in a world where all desire to be God, what do I choose the definition of "God" to be?

Putting it another way, How do we humans become God? What God do I want us to become? The answer FOR ME is in nuturing the potential in the other person ... and this is what I believe Jesus' message to be ... hence am I a Christian Existentialist? Should I use the term "Christian" with today's mixed baggage of meaning? I don't know. I'll think about it.

I would add that I believe in nuturing the other person by sharing ... and particularly in sharing the creative experience, the uniquely human experience of applying our imagination to "What might be" and selecting from the infinite range of options, "What ought to be," and then making it, "What is."

To go a bit farther in this, Sartre writes, ""Existentialism isn't so atheistic that it wears itself out showing that God doesn't exist. Rather, it declares that even if God did exist, that would change nothing. There you've got our point of view. Not that we believe that God exists, but we think that the problem of His existence is not the issue."

What is a homo sapien? We are the creatures with the imagination to become the God we choose to be. In choosing what I ought to be, I choose my God. In choosing my God, I choose God.

I am an atheist because I do not believe that God exists prior to human existence, and that "God" is the outcome of our ability to imagine what ought to be.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

On building community, Part II

Let' shift our thinking: stop working at our "day job" so we can consume (as in buy stuff to play with), and work at our "day job" so we can create (make stuff to play with).

It's not "new" thinking. Musicians flip burgers so they can play music in garages; actors wait on tables so they can perform in small theatres; artists work in galleries and bookstores so they can go home to their studios and paint or sculpt or ... sharing their creative experiences within their communities/groups/"tribes" ... where rank/status is awarded fairly(?).

And there is no reason this can't be done with science, technology, engineering, mathematics.

This is the paradigm shift in thinking that I have been searching for ... it's so obvious (at least to me) that I am astounded at my myopia ...

If we just sit around and "philosophize" about ideas, we are like the ancients who argued over the number of angels that could fit on the head of a pin.

We have to take the "real object" (a musical chord or riff, color combinations and visual perspective, robotic devices ... the sharp edged rock becoming a prybar) and apply imagination and create the "new real object" ... this is the infusion of renewal into our lives:

Existing "thing" + Imagination = New "thing"

This what engages the "child at play" in us. We are not consumers of packaged goods, we are creators of "new goods" ... which we will, of course, use to live better lives and, in turn, feed the creative experience.

As we do this with others, we form community.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

On building community, Part I

I'm working on a mission mantra, "Building community by sharing in creative experiences."

Creative experience through art, music, and--yes--the STEM fields, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

I was thinking the other day that if we tried to teach music the way we try to teach math, there would be as few musicians as there are now mathematicians ... or those who we label "mathematicians".

Can't you see the music teacher telling the child, "You can't pick up an instrument until you can write a music score." Or the music person at a jazz club, "You can't be certified as a musician and play in a group until you pass a test on writing a music score."

And of course, we know that most people go about their days measuring centimeters and meters or inches and feet ... ounces and pounds or grams; counting their chickens and quarts or litres of milk, or gallons or liters of gasoline. Figuring out bus, train, and plane schedules.

Women who comfortably operate simultaneously their stove, blender, dishwasher, washing machine, and a host of other technically manipulated pieces of equipment in their kitchens alone, are too often considered technically inept. And I'm not even addressing our experiences in various wars when women have replaced men in highly technical jobs.

But I ramble away from the mantra. I'll get back to it in Part II.