Our existence is a mystery that none have yet solved, though many of us like to think we have. We may have found our soul's purpose lying within our homes, families and pets or within domestic abuse victims and homeless animals. There are innumerable ways that we discover our purpose in life, often with the question, "How can I change the world?"
Joseph Campbell's Three Views of Life
In his book Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation, Joseph Campbell proposes three ways of life: total affirmation, life-negating and progressive (105). The first two fall on opposite poles, with the affirmative way suggesting that the world is perfect and the life-negating way striving for purity (Campbell 105).
In Campbell's own words, "The progressive or ameliorative way says, 'Let's get in there and improve it'. This is like marrying someone in order to improve on that person. I don't call this affirmation. It usually puts you in the position of being a little bit superior: 'If God had only asked me, I could have given Him some pointers'" (105).
The progressive way of life is perhaps the most anxiety-inducing. With the other two views, there is a certain commitment that must be given, for better or for worse, no matter how many times you may doubt that you are following the correct path. With the progressive view, there is more of a reliance on yourself to find your own path through life. Not only do you have to come to terms with your own thoughts and feelings, but you have to find a way to live in relative harmony with the world and the people in it (unless, of course, you opt to become a recluse, which requires a great degree of commitment in itself).
A great number of people feel more comfortable when they have control over a situation than when they do not. Even if they are not completely in control, they enjoy being God's backseat driver: Okay, God, here I am at a crossroads. I know I don't have any control over this situation, but if you could just do this and this for me, I know I'd be happy. Yet, as attached as we may be to a particular image of ourselves, we must allow the possibility that our lives have something else in store for us.
Heidegger's Concept of Unconcealedness
Martin Heidegger wrote about the idea of aletheia in his work Being and Time. He defined this term as meaning "unconcealedness," where our own subjectivity is removed and the essence of an object is unveiled (Heidegger in Gutting 150).
Think of an item that is generally thought of as lacking purpose, such as a dried-up marking pen. You may view this object as being completely useless. Even if you carry artistic inclinations and believe you can make this marking pen the crux of your new art project, you are still imposing value onto it.
What Heidegger proposes, with his notion of aletheia, is that the object itself has inherent worth. Think of this in terms of something larger, such as a sunset. Two people may view a sunset, with one person treasuring its exquisite beauty and the other completely disregarding it. Does this diminish the value of the sunset? Heidegger would say that it does not. Because the sunset has innate worth, our own perception of it has no bearing on its value.
Allowing the World to Reveal Itself
Living in a culture that seems to be constantly pushing itself to the limit (and then flying past that), it can be difficult to maintain a sense of what is important. Some people may go through their entire lives without ever knowing what their values were or what their purpose was. Others may grapple with a vague idea of what they are "supposed" to be doing, never quite feeling like they are accomplishing something.
How, then, do we pinpoint our life's purpose? We don't. Instead, we allow our life's purpose to pinpoint us. Our lives are comparable to the aforementioned sunset—they have inherent worth without any action required from us. This does not give us permission to pull our comforters over our heads and remain in bed for the rest of our lives. Naturally, we feel better about ourselves when we switch over to a productive mode.
What we can realize, without necessarily changing any of our current habits and goals, is that the world requires nothing from us. The world is as it is and does not need us to change it. We can certainly take the steps so that we can live more comfortably, both with ourselves and with others. Yet, this is not something that we are being forced to do. It allows us a degree of relaxation, a relinquishing of control, if we ask ourselves, "How can I let the world change me?"
Sources
- Campbell, Joseph. Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation. Novato: New World Library, 2004.
- Heidegger, Martin. "From On 'Time and Being'." Continental Philosophy of Science. Ed. Gary Gutting. Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2005. Kindle Edition.
Brittney Weber - I play on words like they're a jungle gym, dangling from modifiers and running on sentences.
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