Happy birthday, 2020

 

Another year, another birthday.  Some achievements:

• I lost 30 pounds from Jan-April, and I've managed to keep most of it off, even with less activity through COVID-19
• I've started doing more sketching and drawing again, which has been really enjoyable for me
• I submitted writing to a Netflix writing competition
• I applied for a board position...I didn't get it, but proud of myself for at least trying
• I've started a new job position at work since January, it's been a good learning experience
• I'm writing more letters and connecting with old friends again that I've lost touch with
• I grew out my hair...it was an experience.  Never again!! Haha.
  

 

I've had this Kylie Minogue song running through my head this year during my birthday week.  Some of the lyrics really appeal to me, the gist of it being to enjoy life and turn life into action that makes you happy/fulfilled.  And happiness doesn't mean always feeling pleasurable about certain problems or issues.  A state of living well, or a life well-lived is a problem of morality for the average person, the average person's philosophical problem.  

There are many unsatisfactory answers to this problem (Sartre, Hegel, Aristotle, silly nihilists) but there are also very thoughtful, and well placed answers.  Heidegger had a lot to say about living authentically in the world. Being in the world, and understanding our 'heritage,' in other words, discovery of the self in conjuction with those that have come before, and discovery of the value (facticity) of the world itself.  We are meant to be guardians of the world as is.

How can we be people in the world, in connection with others, and create a meaningful life?

I think at the end of the day, our intentions are what matter. We are here for a limited time.  Regardless of our energy, time, money, opportunities, the direction we are pointed in the world, will take us to places of value, or not.

There are a lot of philosophical answers to intentions, but simple to say, if your so-called intentions don't lead to action, they aren't intentions.  They are simply wishes. I wish I had more hair, was taller, was skinnier, was wealthier, etc. but these things are just dreams of dreams.  Intentionality means to be real in the world we live in, with a hope for real change.

 Real change is possible in the world, I believe it, and I believe it for most of us, achievable. Though this year is a strange one, and 2021 will probably be stranger still, I'm hopeful for the future, for the future generations coming up into the world.  

Happy birthday to me.