Burden, or opportunity…?
Burden, or opportunity…? Resources for dealing with a sense of absurdity
Yesterday I was talking with a new friend of mine. A super cool person. Since I stepped into the brand I currently inhabit, I’ve been attracting some of the most awesome people into my orbit. I also think the content and way of thinking it offers also shows me an awesomeness to many people I couldn’t see before. For all of this I am most grateful. Awesome conversations with awesome people. What more could one ask for?
We were connecting over a shared experience of the absurdity of life. There’s a handful of people I have encountered who experience it persistently and pervasively, and they perk up when I start to describe it. These people can seem joyful, bubbly, ebullient. But under the surface they are grappling with a deep bafflement around the nature of human life and consciousness.
I like the way philosopher Thomas Nagel puts it in his paper The Absurd, written as recently as 1971. The first sentence is “Most people feel on occasion that life is absurd, yet some feel it vividly and continually.” I show that opening line to people and some feel immediately seen and validated on a very deep and personal level. And that changes them somehow. It also opens up a conversation that is more fulfilling than any that I have ever experienced.
These people tend to feel depressed, anxious, and overwhelmed by the unceasing demands of a life they did not ask for. And I know what that’s like, because I’m one of these people. I asked my new friend “Do you feel like it’s an opportunity more than a burden?” She thought for a moment and said “On balance yes, but it hasn’t always been that way.” I asked if she has ever struggled with depression and anxiety and confirmed that she has. The challenge for us modern, enterprising existentialists is to see the opportunity more than the burden. That’s how to avoid depression. And I know it’s easier said than done, because I struggle with this daily myself.
Life is unremitting, and our quality of life is generally high, which places heavy demands on us (to be fair, the demands of lower quality of life are also quite high, so the demands of life are ultimately inescapable). It’s enough to drive anyone to despair from time to time, but some of us feel it quite persistently, and most people, for some reason, don’t understand. Some people tell me it is even fruitless to describe this feeling to their therapists because even THEY don’t get it. This shows me that my thinking and work has an important role in what is typically called “mental health”. I don’t like that term, but it’s the best one we have for now.
To quote a paraphrase of Kierkegaard: “...existence in this earthly realm must lead a sensitive person to despair. Despair, Kierkegaard held, is the inevitable result of the individual’s having to confront momentous concrete ethical and religious dilemmas as an individual. It is the result of the individual’s having to make, for themself and alone, choices of lasting significance.” Some people feel that at a profound level.
If this resonates with you, here are two resources, one free, and one for a small fee:
FREE - Episode 3 of my podcast A Higher Level ⬆️ is all about absurdity. It was recorded months ago and already feels old to me, but may be helpful for you.
SMALL FEE - An article I wrote called “Perpetual Upleveling” which ties together perennial themes of mythology, philosophy, and psychology to help us reckon with the often absurd and futile feeling of life, and how to channel that into entrepreneurial high performance.
Are you relating to this? You can always talk to me. I have a knack for taking this sense of absurdity, turning it into a highly purposeful sense inspiration, and helping you chart your course from there. Give me a shout if you’re feeling it.