Flannel Covidtimes Diary: Lent Day 6
Life is Always Lived Forwards: Log Day 02232021
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” — Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard (1813—1855)
"Kierkegaard is an outsider in the history of philosophy. His peculiar authorship comprises a baffling array of different narrative points of view and disciplinary subject matter, including aesthetic novels, works of psychology and Christian dogmatics, satirical prefaces, philosophical “scraps” and “postscripts,” literary reviews, edifying discourses, Christian polemics, and retrospective self-interpretations. His arsenal of rhetoric includes irony, satire, parody, humor, polemic and a dialectical method of “indirect communication” – all designed to deepen the reader’s subjective passionate engagement with ultimate existential issues. Like his role models Socrates and Christ, Kierkegaard takes how one lives one’s life to be the prime criterion of being in the truth." (Source: https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega/)
I heard this quote in my mid-twenties and thought it was a profound quote, so it has always stuck with me. I'm turning 47 this year and this quote hits much differently than it did when I was 25. Because, now, I get to experience the choices that I made twenty-two years ago. One of Kierkegaard's many philosophies was that no matter what choices people make there will always be some regret and that no human is ever fully content, at any point in their life. He also created the word "angst." He wrote a lot about anxiety and that there's really no true meaning in life and that we just give it up to go and have "leaps of faith." That's my brief interpretation of Kierkegaard. I guess he spoke to me as a young person because I was undeniably full of angsty existentialism trying to figure out what I was doing with my life or what I should be doing if I was even living my life right. Are we ever? Now that I am no longer an angsty twenty-something I can look back on my life and confirm that Kierkegaard was right. In retrospect sure I would do some (maybe many) things differently and the outcomes would be probably more beneficial for Vangie of today, however how would I know that back then?
We are constantly trying to make the wisest choices for ourselves, but those choices are either based on our own personal misfortunes or others. As human beings we are fallible and imperfect because we are human beings. Do I have some positive words of wisdom? All I have is the only person's opinion you should care about on how you're living your life is yours. You're the only person that knows what your wants, needs, and desires are. You wake up with yourself and fall asleep with yourself and you get to decide every single day how you get to where you need to go. What actions you need to take to get there. At the end of the day you live with your choices good, bad, or indifferent. As long as you do it with love, patients, kindness, and grace. Be kind to yourself, always.
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