The Test Confirms It! I'M Weird

You Are 80% Weird

You're more than quirky, you're downright strange. But you're also strangely compelling, like a cult leader.

How Weird Are You?

My planet

You Are From the Moon

You can vibe with the steady rhythms of the Moon. You're in touch with your emotions and intuition. You possess a great, unmatched imagination - and an infinite memory. Ultra-sensitive, you feel at home anywhere (or with anyone). A total healer, you light the way in the dark for many.

What Planet Are You From?

Random thoughts again

Just started reading the unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera, and reading it has got me all worked up about the meaning of our existence here on earth. In fact its has got me so worked up that instead of enjoying my date with candy i started bombarding her with soliloquies about the immateriality of life, and its deadening routine.

What made me think about suicide is kundera's supposition about the heaviest of burden being the key factor that brings us closer to our material existence here on earth, and how on the other hand, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to take leave of the earth and his earthly being.

And what does kundera's supposition have to do with the concept of suicide? For one, the concept that the bigger the burden the closer we are to the truth of our existence makes us more aware of the concreteness of our desires, motivations, and actions that we do in this world. By making us aware of the concreteness of our actions we are consigned to accept the duties and responsiblities we have to face in this life, because by fulfilling our obligation we feel a certain sense of achievement of having reached a concrete goal set at a definite time frame. The more burden we bear the bigger are our responsibilities, and the less time left for contemplating life's essense and meaning of our existence.

On the other hand if our lives will be free from life's practical and concrete burdens then the more time left for contemplation. And the more we contemplate, the more we see how ephemeral life is. And by seeing how fleeting life could be the more we begin to realise the inanity of following the routine set upon us by the practical demands of our material and concrete world.

Take for example a factory worker in an assembly plant. His life is a routine that moves like clockwork. It is a thankless and unfufilling job that alienates him from his own humanity, and transforms him into an appendage of the whole assembly line. But he does it everyday because by working he earns money that would pay for his tangible and concrete needs (i.e. food, shelter, education, recreation). the burden to fulfill these needs is what shapes his motivation and desires. It defines his meaning of existence - the desire to solve life's burden so as to fulfill his needs as a person.

But if the worker achieves a certain sense of security life's burden will cease to motivate him into action, but rather it becomes a fetter that ties him to a senseless and never ending routine. At this point boredom will set in, and he will feel that life ceases to have meaning prompting him to seek ways to escape his material existence by first wallowing in hedonism and contemplations about sprituallity. But later when even his hedonistic excursions becomes routine, or when his spritual contemplations provides no answer, then death or suicide becomes the viable alternative.

It is at this point wherein the distinction between the sublime and paltry becomes non-distinct, and the dimensions of life becomes negated.

I do not know if this fits in with kundera's novel (i've only read up to page 17), but i think that the opposition between lightness and weight manifests itself not only in love but also in man's desire to live. Being grounded by the weight of the world prompts us to move on, while being free from it causes ennui, depression, and suicide. We go on living to solve not only our own life's burden, but our love ones as well. And because of this weight of responsiblity to ourselves and to our love ones we continue to move on.