Life is Absurd
Life is absurd.
Recognizing the overall absurdity of life helps with understanding this.
Do you ever pause and look at the world way outside of yourself and think, isn’t this bizarre –or-wtaf? People get all in a tizzy about variations in skin color, choices in lovers, which god/gods/goddesses to worship or not, invisible borders, civility, and basic human decency. It is just so crazy, so illogical, so…absurd.
Then perhaps you look a little less far afield. The sun and clouds, grass and water, wildlife, trees and other flora in your neighborhood simply are. In your room, you have things that matter, books, trinkets, speakers, pictures and paintings to make your space feel like home.
It seems utterly stable…except of course, it’s not. A major storm can change the landscape, fire or flood could alter your space. It is just as crazy, illogical, and absurd.
Now you zoom in on yourself. You are the only person inside your head. There is nobody else in there thinking or feeling your thoughts and feelings, nobody else choosing the actions that you take, intentional or otherwise. You may or may not be happy with your body, your hair, muscle tone, thinking or feeling.
You are changeable. That means that you can gain and lose weight, build or lose muscle tone, change the cut and color of your hair, and influence, alter, and control what you are thinking and what and how you are feeling. You can control the actions you take.
This can be as overwhelming as looking at the bigger picture. What’s more, it’s equally crazy, illogical, and absurd.
Life is ludicrous
“Light speed is too slow.”
“Light speed too slow?”
“Yes, we’re going to have to go right to…ludicrous speed!” – Dark Helmet and Colonel Sanders, Spaceballs
In the world we live in today, it’s far too easy to completely bypass light speed (or ridiculous speed for that matter) and go right to ludicrous speed. The thing of it is, though, that no matter what speed you desire to travel, ludicrous is frequently an apt descriptor.
To put it as simply as I can, life is ludicrous. Ridiculous. Crazy. Absurd. Almost completely unpredictable and bizarre, whether you are looking at the “big picture” of the overall world, around yourself and whatever spaces you inhabit, or in your own mind.
A lot of people take issue with this. Why? Because the idea that everything is absurd is scary because it means there is no control. Everything happens with no reason whatsoever, it just happens.
Yes, this can be scary. But the absurdity of life is also a big part of what can make life truly incredible. Why? Because it means that everything and nothing matters at the same time.
Confused? Ok, let me try to explain this better. The only place where you have any real control is your mind. Nobody but you is in there, so you have all the power to influence, alter, and control your thought process.
This means that you get to choose for yourself what to think and how and what to feel. Yes, this can be totally absurd because it can feel overwhelming. Realistically, though, it’s only overwhelming because of the outside influences causing you to think that.
Ergo, you can choose to let it make you crazy or enjoy the ride.
You are meant to swim through the absurdity
For some people, they just exist. Every day is what it is, and they just go with it. They do what is expected, get through the day, and move on to the next. There are probably bits and pieces of more than mere survival along the way, but they most likely ascribe to the Denis Leary theorem from his comedy.
“Happiness comes in small doses folks. It’s a cigarette butt, or a chocolate chip cookie or a five second orgasm. You come, you smoke the butt you eat the cookie you go to sleep wake up and go back to f*#king work the next morning, THAT’S IT! End of f*#king list.”
While this is not entirely untrue, it is not the only truth. Life is not just a slog where short bursts of happiness are greater than contentment and overall satisfaction – unless you see it as such.
For some people, they struggle. Everything is a challenge. Every day is awful, and tomorrow will likely be worse. They see the downside of everything, and they expect it all will suck. Since consciousness creates reality they are mostly right.
Ok, it is really important to not discount how many people DO have truly awful circumstances. The people being kept in the concentration camps in the southwestern United States, for example. Women who need abortions in certain states but will be treated as criminals if they make that choice. Black people pulled over just for driving a nice car in a nice neighborhood because of being racially profiled.
However, all of that is part of the absurdity of life. This is why those of us who are more easily able to make choices and decisions about our lives can take actions to make sense of the absurdity of life.
Making sense of an absurd life
Am I contradicting myself with this? No, because while life may be absurd, it IS.
Dictionary.com tells me that absurd means this:
adjective
utterly or obviously senseless, illogical, or untrue; contrary to all reason or common sense; laughably foolish or false
noun
the quality or condition of existing in a meaningless and irrational world.
How does this definition help? Because if the world is meaningless and irrational overall, you are empowered to create meaning and rationality within your understand and existence.
How in the hell does that work? This is convoluted, so stay with me. You are here. You exist. In being here in this time and place, and existing, you make an impact on the world. You live in an absurd world, that may be true…but you can make sense of your small corner of it. This can be done through being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions, and using that to build a life that satisfies you.
Creating a pocket of logic and reason and sensibility around your own existence is your birthright. What this means is that you have the ability to find paths for your own life, and they will make sense to you. They may ONLY make sense to you, but that’s not a bad thing.
In an absurd world, this is the ultimate empowerment, and it belongs to you. Thus you can work through all absurdity and create amazingness.
This entire post is ludicrous and absurd
Yes, it is. But that doesn’t make it wrong.
You are the only one who knows what is right for you and your life. Yes, the world is absurd and crazy and illogical and irrational. So instead of trying to make sense of the things outside of yourself over which you have just about ZERO control, why not logic and reason the things you can?
That is, specifically, your own head. You can make sense of your mindset. One way of doing so is to choose paths that make you happy and content and allow you to consciously create reality.
It should be noted, by the way, that when you ARE content and know yourself, your creation of an aura of logic and rationality around yourself can be spread to others. That, in turn, can spread from there. Collective consciousness, like individual consciousness, can be altered.
Ergo, the absurdity of the world can be changed.
Be the best you that you can be, and choose the paths that make you feel the most whole and complete. Recognize that life is ludicrous, and that is only a bad thing if you believe it to be.
What paths are you on, and what paths might you want to be on going forward?
This is the three-hundred ninety-seventh entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas for, and my personal experiences with, walking along the path of life to consciously create reality. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way and empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
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