Saturday, March 9, 2019

Living for Reality, Living for Image

In our culture, we value reality. If you love someone, you want their real well-being. If you can't see it come to pass, then you are depressed. You have to be, you're emotionally tied to their well-being.

We value being in touch with reality as it is, even if it depresses us or makes life make less sense. "Reality" is defined as "what we know through the knowledge that contributes to human well-being". But it's also defined as "what we know through the rules that give us knowledge, applied consistently, whether we like it or not."

But there's another way to look at things. You could desire instead to be someone who is the best version of yourself you can be. Incidentally, this involves concern for other people's well-being. If you can't save the world, you can rest in the thought that you did your best -- if you did. It's okay for you and other people to suffer and die, as long as you all did your best.

You can live to be the most beautiful image of yourself, and live for beauty, tasks, and stories.

Is ultimate reality what is seen in front of us and felt with our bodies, or what we can see but not grasp, or what speaks to us from beyond this world? Whether ultimate reality is based on images of personality and stories and doing your best, or whether it is based in what brings about tangible, visible human well-being, is something that can be debated, although often not profitably, because each side sees the very debate according to their own lenses. But there is cross-over; as above, it is beautiful to care about other people. Also, it can be beneficial to human well-being if people do their best instead of getting discouraged by all the bad things they couldn't prevent.

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