It is my feeling that most people live a great deal in denial, muting their inner voices and refusing to listen to the realities of life. This being said, I understand. There are certain fundamental absurdities about being human.
For example, we all will die one day. When that happens, we can believe in transcendence, but we can not know that until this passage happens.
But, how can we live our lives, fulfilling our obligations, when we are focused on imminent demise?
I grew up in the 1980’s at the end of the Cold War. It was a strange thing to be a kid, living in fear of the bomb. News about nuclear weapons showed up in a lot of our newspapers and news reports. It added a surreal, paranoid quality to life. As an eighties kid, you never knew if you would see adulthood, or old age.
Because we have to filter our thoughts, and push down certain things we know, some of our faculties become impaired, I believe, and it is my theory that our awareness and sensitivity returns occasionally in flashes of insight, revelation, or moments of peak emotion.
This is a bit like Habermas’ theory of modern time, with its “Jetzeit” (or “empty”) time, shot through with moments of Messianic time.
Kids growing up today have precisely the same fears.
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I totally believe that.
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I love to think abt big questions, like the passage of time. It all seems like a dream to me.
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Thanks! If you feel like it, you should say more. Why does it feel like a dream? I am curious.
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