To thine own self be true

there remain umpteen unlimited possibilities–real and imaginary. Only limited by personal attitude and the will to make choices that activate or realize whichever possibilities for ourselves in our own individual lives.

who or what can you believe, trust, or predict anymore?

will get stolen in our society. Lawn ornaments, copper wire, flower pots, etc. And even then there will be guys driving into banks to steal safes or loading up red mailboxes. Above all, people are incredibly cheap and will try to get everything for absolutely nothing.

Privately printed, signed, limited edition by Joseph Conrad
London: T. Werner Laurie Ltd.
Riverside Press Ltd., Edinburgh
Photo by Malcolm Arbuthnot.

And suddenly in the meeting room in some very high hotel, there he was suddenly, standing only about five yards away, bathed in bright sunlight from the wide window, his hair immaculate, wearing a dignified thin-lapelled ’60s suit, looking very self-possessed, but maybe a bit unsure of the passing moment in a crowded room. He looked my way with those remarkable eyes. (People often recall that unforgettable handsome face, but it was, of course his eyes, when they looked at you, or focused on you that were the windows of his deep soul.) Trailing clouds of glory for those precious few seconds, he saw just another strange face in the crowd. The eyes of Camelot–a terrible unknown destiny awaiting him, still to happen. Jack. J.F.K.–John Fitzgerald Kennedy. More like a god than a mortal man in that truly unexpected moment and vision.

(Bighorn at entrance to resort)

(view from balcony)

(option to watch golfers going by, mountains in background)

“Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.”
–Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

(Who needs unnecessary crowds, crazy traffic, long line-ups, and excessive noise?)

“The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur.”
–A. N. Whitehead

Personalists view the personality (and I would add, the nature and consciousness of the person) as the key to understanding reality. Everything by way of meaning, purpose, and significance basically boils down to the self, individual, or personality. Notions of value, existential meaning, morality, and beauty, too.

Much as Kant suggested, individuals are reservoirs of intrinsic value. (Some would add, infinite.) That is why, as in my previous “The Law Is an Ass” blog entry, we should all bemoan the unjust punishments meted out in kangaroo courts today. Nothing is of sufficient value, say the Personalists, to replace a human being. (Shades of Donne’s “No man is an island.”)
………………………….

My life, changed significantly, forever, when I first encountered the writings of the Existentialists in university. In later years, I would teach Camus`s “The Guest” and L’Etranger, and share with students their views re. the centrality of choice. It was not difficult for an only child and individualist to identify with their views that man is alone, isolated, and alienated to a large degree.

Much like a tabula rasa we add to, man is not born with any given nature per se, and develops it as he goes through life, much like Meursault in L’Etranger, making choices and decisions. So life is a process and man is very much always in the making, Existentially speaking. Man makes himself through his choices; in that sense, he chooses himself, his life.

For the Existentialists, as for me again on many days, life looks largely subjective, irrational, chaotic, and absurd. But Truth can often be found, more often than not, inside, in the self. The acts of thinking and consciousness are central to finding whatever meanings, purpose, and significance. (Again, Truth is empirically a subjective reality and ideal.)

is just simply the common human need to know and be known, understood, accepted for who and what one is, and maybe loved and appreciated.