I admire the meaninglessness of life and how humans make sense of the meaninglessness of life.
I am not familiar with philosophical terms. My background is language and communication. The way I define a concept is usually with a story, literary work or characters in the story.
Here are two works that struck me and in many ways, the characters I mentioned inspired me and I have been thinking about for a long time too. Although in the end people judged.
The first was Lucky in the tragicomedy drama Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett, which was originally staged in French entitled En attendant Godot in 1953.
There are five characters, namely Estragon (Gogo), Vladimir (Didi), Pozzo, Lucky, and Boy (the little boy).
The dialogue is very evocative and abstract.
In short, Waiting For Godot is about those who are waiting for Godot, characters who don't come. The symbolization in the drama implies what the characters do while waiting for Godot.
Didi, who is religious, considers Godot's arrival or his meeting with Godot as a gift for his religiosity. He will continue to "wait" because it is moral for him. Like a religious person, performing rituals and relying on the hope of his life to accept God.
Didi stopped Gogo who was about to commit suicide by saying, "What if Godot comes tomorrow?" Didi is somewhere between naivety and optimism. He lives to WAIT for Godot. Didi's character is a personal archetype of religion. Didi also met the Little Boy who was Godot's messenger. Gogo felt the wait was futile and would rather kill himself. He saw the waiting was meaningless, so it was better to die.
Pozzo the politician/businessman is also waiting for Godot and interprets his life as a useful person, such as hiring Lucky as his slave. Like the politicians and businessmen we see today. Or an activist who dedicates his life to the salvation of mankind.
Lucky himself was just a slave. In the play he is seen serving Pozzo. However, he was actually devoted to himself. He carries out a different meaning of life from other characters.
If Gogo wants to commit suicide, Didi relies on religious illusions, Pozzo relies on political illusions, Lucky chooses to ACCEPT that life is meaningless.
It is this acceptance that makes Lucky strong. He sees life as it is. Life is a curse and he lives it knowingly that he is meaningless and what he does is not meaningful enough for the world he lives in. He is self-reliant and doesn't need illusions to make it count.
Lucky accepts the meaninglessness of life.
And that acceptance is the courage to confront life. "I know and accept this is all meaningless"
We on this earth are just waiting for Godot. There are those who wait for Godot by becoming Didi and hope that through The Boy, there are those who become Gogo, many who become Pozzo, but there are also those who decide to become Lucky.
Although many assume Godot here as God, Beckett himself said that Godot here can be interpreted as anything that makes humans continue to live.
Lucky did the same as Sisyphus in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) by Albert Camus, the pioneer of Absurdism.
Sisyphus had to carry a rock from under the mountain to the top, then the stone rolled down and he carried it back up again. Every day. As punishment from the gods for he chained Death.
That's life, I think. Just carry a rock up the mountain and then fall again, to be carried up again.
And I accept that.
That life is meaningless. I don't mean. Whatever I do is meaningless. But, I will still do it, for the sake of living. Like Lucky and Sisyphus, I don't want to be under the illusion that I'm important and important. It just is.
I have no mission to be useful or save humanity. Nor am I religious.
That's why my credentials are between Waiting For Godot, A Happy Sisyphus, and Professional Time Waster. Because that's what we do in this world. SPEND TIME.
Does that mean? Is it useful? I reject the illusion to be the reason I live my life.
