Fuel
How do you hold yourself accountable to your life’s mission? If, like me, you occasionally find it helpful to frame things in such grand terms.
Surely a step in the right direction is seizing moments where of inspiration to articulate one’s values and aspirations.
As I sit on the precipice of beginning my second Master’s degree (in Philosophy at King’s College London), and continue to hone my Research-Creation PhD proposal – which may carry me through the better part of a decade – I feel compelled to clarifying the purpose and thrust of my work. Both in order to hold myself accountable and, I hope, for this to be infectious.
Such clarity, found and solidified through saying these things aloud (or here, in writing), is bound to provide an enormous amount of motivation; released as a hissing, bubbly substance; a fuel of action. A fuel that would ignite the engine of my mission to understand, engage with, and build upon the work which other thinkers (philosophers, neuroscientists, artists…) have done in the areas I’m interested in.
Yet I wonder if I’ve only glimpsed the fullness of the joy and significance offered by this work…
This exploration is aimed at making the world a better place. It’s aimed at helping people; at generating, discovering, and sharing new knowledge. It amounts to the creation of an artifact that could change a person’s life.
And it is not only the destination but the journey there! The writing, conversing, and dreaming. Embarking on an expedition to meet people who may also be invested in this vision, and may have the tools to collaborate with me in realizing it. Two years already – and another handful ahead – of researching how film may be the single most powerful medium for the exploration of non-conceptual and pre-linguistic territory.
This is the endeavour to make philosophy so accessible, practical and essential that it might fulfill the great promise of that word:
Philosophy | Philosophia (Greek) – “love of wisdom”
The love of wisdom. It’s remarkable how much is contained in that. Wisdom concerns how we navigate our lives. It recognizes that there are things you can understand (about your mind, the world, others, time…) that can help you navigate this predicament in a better way. (And in every sense of the word “better”).
What a promise! One too often marred by the dense, dull and pretentious abstractions which shelter under the name of philosophy and smear its portrait. Let us return to philosophy which has something important and helpful to say to those moving through life with anxiety, depression, trauma, and addiction – and yet just as much to those abound with a sense of wide-eyed wonder and curiosity that wants to leap right out of their chests with a yearning to understand the depth of mind and nature.
Remember, philosophy is a love of this journey! It expresses a passion for this incredible happening. The journey to wisdom isn’t a duty, but something for effortless relishing. When you really look at life, doesn’t it seem so? Life is already set up with this curriculum in place. It is already elegantly structured to offer a string of endless opportunities to discover ourselves and the world, and through the collision of those two things, to grow into better people. This we call experience.
I think I only appreciate this on the most superficial level. I can write it here, and I can say it with a certain amount of conviction and sincerity, but I believe that it’s worthwhile setting my priorities straight – so the fuel can burn away in the most effective direction.