posted June 14, 2010 08:17 PM
What is the central, driving force of life?Not The Will, omnivorous and undifferentiating. Nor The Will To Power, -- though, no doubt, for some it must be so. For me, it is The Will To Be, and, in this, The Will To Become; that is, to become, to develop and perfect, that which one is, in the deepest sense. Pleasure and happiness, responsibility and freedom, consciousness and self-awareness, are mere off-shoots of this; for we feel the deepest pleasure, we experience the richest happiness, we fulfill our highest obligation, we satisfy our broadest desires for liberty, and we awaken to the consciousness of all life, and all things, both in relation to ourselves and in immaculate equillibrium, only to the degree that we have become ourselves; and established ourselves as true individuals in healthy and harmonius relation to the whole.
Nietzsche writes, "Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves". He means the will, the strength, to be answerable to ourselves, not above and before all others, but, solely and utterly to ourselves. Not to dismiss the qualms of conscience, nor the pangs of even the most perfidious empathy, but, to live in accordance with our own codes. And this must include the will to discover and develop those codes; to establish, once and for all, a system of values, -- or else, a dynamic relationship to the very highest, most visionary concepts of value of which we are capable, -- taking into account all that we are, and all that we may be.
To discover and refine one's concept of value is also to discover oneself. Who we are is a direct reflection of what we prize and hold dear. It follows that, in order to fully "embody" ourselves, we must endeavor to investigate and articulate the nature of what is, for us, the perfect government and hierarchy of values. We must ask ourselves what it is we value most, and what we are willing to forgive (and what we are willing to fogive it for). These questions seep into the very roots of our being, and can only serve to nourish our connection to the innermost fountain of ourselves. Out of this process of inquiry, we are born and grow.
"Tell me who you love, and I'll tell you who you are."
~ Native-American Proverb
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The Pigeon Hole
"The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings - words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within, not for want of a teller, but, for want of an understanding ear."
~Stephen King
Lindaland
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posted June 14, 2010 08:17 PM
posted June 14, 2010 10:46 PM
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