"We have not overcome our condition, and yet we know it better. We know that we live in contradiction, but we also know that we must refuse this contradiction and do what is needed to reduce it. Our task as [humans] is to find the few principles that will calm the infinite anguish of free souls. We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again in a world so obviously unjust, give happiness a meaning once more to peoples poisoned by the misery of the century. Naturally, it is a superhuman task. But superhuman is the term for tasks [we] take a long time to accomplish, that’s all.
Let us know our aims then, holding fast to the mind, even if force puts on a thoughtful or a comfortable face in order to seduce us. The first thing is not to despair. Let us not listen too much to those who proclaim that the world is at an end. Civilizations do not die so easily, and even if our world were to collapse, it would not have been the first. It is indeed true that we live in tragic times. But too many people confuse tragedy with despair. “Tragedy,” [D.H.] Lawrence said, “ought to be a great kick at misery.” This is a healthy and immediately applicable thought. There are many things today deserving such a kick."
note:
some posts before i quoted Ferdinand Pessoa and Henry Miller,
i could have quoted Nietzsche, i mentioned Kafka.
i remember i juxtaposed Pessoa and Kafka to Miller in contrast,
and i thought of Camus then.
All of them were driven by a passion for inner freedom, all of them
went on a quest for truth, looking through the big lies of their time,
for all of them there has been this same strife, how to walk out of
decadence( a word loaded with the idea and implication that all had been better before, untrue)
and how to walk through the cruelty of human kind with
open eyes through the continuous question: what good will and can remain?
should we abscond from living within society and remain observers,
shall we create a superhuman and a new bible, shall we prefer our dreams to
what me must assume as reality and see this same reality as nightmares,
can keeping our spirit and heart transform our life and others, will reason
ever help in the blind human struggle. are we allowed to just enjoy life all the same
or is this a sin and just too boring and stagnation? is love a word or a truth?
i appreciate Camus better than all others coming out of existentialism. is this because i like
to hear courage and persistence and hope and life having a voice? yes.
one must acknowledge despair, this way it can kick us into transformation and growth.
all the above mentioned were great writers. all wrote with blood.all cared.
and this way none of them said: nothing matters.
big snowflakes outside coming down.
all the world is white, here.
i don't know anything.
i write, think, reflect, meditate.
i am not so important.
i understand that some people tap themselves into the universal flow
of life and love and think they can make a difference from inside there, meditating, re-radiating,
still not understanding what a small part they are, maybe a delusion of grandeur kept in the holiness of nothing, the last stand of individuality.
no, i don't think i will make a great difference here.
and anyway, i am breathing under the snow.
