Find fun in the friction...or prepare yourself for boredom saecula saeculorum…


We’re all there in spirit…

We take a brief respite from my replay of GoldenEye 64 (and we were at the last level too! Grr…) to commit ourselves to a segment that I like to call “Words of Wisdom”, as I detail some ideas, personal philosophies, and empathetic connectivity, in how we can better find ourselves and each other, in this absolutely absurdist, abundantly abysmal, dog shit existence, that seeks to completely destroy our sense of worth and value, one awfully torturous day after another.

I kid (kind of…) of course for the sake of the hyperbolic hilarity that comes with both casually admonishing the infinite grandeur that is reality, while having a healthy sense of self-awareness that things can always be worse. One of my favorite quotes from Schopenhauer, one of the grumpiest funniest philosophers of all time, is as follows:

“If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world.”

I told you he was a hoot, right?

He was one of the rare Western philosophers that took direct influence from some Eastern forms of wisdom, like Buddhism for example. I don’t have a horse in that race, and no worries; I’m not going to get all spirtual-woo-woo on you, just framing some of Schopenhauer’s own inspirations, to at least give you a sense of what was driving the perspective, as I think we’d all benefit greatly from avoiding instantly dismissing opinions we may not understand or find outlandish initially, and take a moment to inhabit the mind of the person who shared the thought, in understanding where they’re coming from, in a moment of shared peaceful solidarity.

Unless you know, that person is a fucking Nazi or some shit, then an instant dismissal vicariously through a fist to the face is definitely appropriate.

Going back to the Schopenhauer quote, while I find it a downright testicle stomping charming sentiment worthy of a giddy giggle, others may stand aghast in horror at such a sideways or even paradoxical view of the everyday. Taking another moment of consideration, however, in thinking about what life entails…does Schopenhauer have something of a point somewhere buried under that pile of motherfuckery humorous intent he just shared with us?

Hmm…let’s see if we can circle back around to this idea after some pondering.

At some point in writing some of the earlier pieces in my run of “Words of Wisdom”, I went out of my way to be on the look out for interesting concepts throughout my week, whether it be through personal suffering, empathizing with another, or overhearing a concept that I either enjoyed or vehemently disagreed with, and then ran with it, usually incorporating some philosophy I was familiar with (on better weeks), and/or tying it into a game I was playing at the moment A nice little Pashford-smorgasbordular of the most delicious metaphysical sort.

I don’t know where that man went…perhaps I should put up wanted posters or something.

Lately, it has been more of a flying by the seat of my pants sort of dealie, but that kind of tracks with the general vibe of the entirety of Active Time Event overall: do a vomit draft of stream of consciousness everyday, sorely cut corners on edditing, and then move on with your life without a care in the world. That’s the thing, though, I never delude myself into thinking I’m attempting to ride on the coattails of Shakespeare or anything, the whole pursuit is just a daily challenge to see how I can operate, in stressful conditions, under a time limit, with nothing more than a limited pool of knowledge, my own small share of experiences, and a genuine attempt at understanding wisdom beyond my initial reckoning in pushing forward into uncertainty. Active Time Event isn’t even monetized, and I never plan on doing so, which means this whole endeavor is purely about personal challenge, there is no material incentive of doing this, though the metaphysical “get back” I suppose is that I may help people in my attempts of this crass sloppiness that represents such an imperfect struggle to understand myself through the pains of the everyday, even if they happen to be as minor as losing my train of thought while behind a keyboard.

I wrote a Words of Wisdom last year about intentionality, and like some of my better articles or more meaningfully structured points of saliency, they stick with me for awhile, kicking about in my mind due to their enduring points of interest, and I’m proud in that moment that I push myself to attempt to give something back to the world, just for the hell of it, cause believe me, even though I am a regular advocate of getting people to challenge themselves, going outside their comfort zone, and to embrace the call of “all aboard the struggle bus, next stop: fuck youville”, like any creature on the face of this planet, I too possess a hedonistic streak about me, and there are way more indulgently absurdist ways to gorge myself stupid on any number of vices that not only wouldn’t benefit anyone else, in the long run, wouldn’t even benefit me, but at least I have the self-awareness to appreciate the reality behind the potentiality there.

‘Cause it’s ultimately all about process, right? As so many have observed over time, the climb is the interesting bit, it’s the summit that is a wolf in sheeps clothing you have to be wary of, cause to me, the summit is where dreams go to die; the peak of disappointment, because now that the climb is done, you can sit there and bask in your accomplishment for a time, maybe even take some pictrues and show people, but that hard work, that training it took to get there, the blood, sweat, and tears shed along the way, reveling in the roughness; those were the golden moments that outshined all of the minutes on the summit combined raised to the tenth factor…there simply is no comparison.

I suppose the point I’m attempting to make here, is one that bears some resemblance to yet another Words of Wisdom, The Truth About Fun, where I detail that on some base level, games aren’t truly about fun, they’re about understanding who you are, challenging yourself to become a better version of yourself, and savoring the suffering while it is happening, cause those are the key moments that will help build who you are for the rest of your life, and with such a limited amount of time on this earth, we gotta make it count, right?

So did Schopenhauer gleam some relevancy in our existence with the observance of the weighted purpose behind suffering? If so, ask yourself the next obvious question: what are you willing to suffer for? If you failed to answer that question confidently, or failed to come up with an answer at all, maybe it’s time you give yourself some time to think about the reasons behind your response and give yourself some time to simply wonder why. You might just learn something.

And as always, take care of yourself, and others.

~Pashford