Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Absurd humility


“And what, in God’s name, is all this pother about?... When nature is “so careless of a single life,” why should we coddle ourselves into the fancy that our own is of exceptional importance?”
- Robert Louis Stevenson, “An Apology for Idlers”

We have been traveling again. And travel often inspires absurd thoughts to one extent or another. This last trip got us thinking about how unimportant we are and how life would go one whether we were here or not.

This thought, while hardly original, is always striking when we go away for awhile. We are much less diligent checking e-mails and the like when traveling. Alone perhaps in the universe, we have not yet succumbed to those little devices that everyone carries around, pushing buttons constantly – even while in the car or using the toilet. No, not yet anyway.

And so, many e-mails are left unanswered, sometimes for days. And guess what happens? Nothing. Nothing at all. All these things that seem so important while you are in the office – being available and answering e-mail – look especially ridiculous when you are away. We have all had this feeling that we are “missing out” when we are away. But upon our return, we find things managed to get done without us. Somehow people soldiered on without our all-important presence.

It’s not the hustle and bustle, or the work itself that we object to. It is the feeling of self-importance that comes with that. It is the stresses and anxieties that we put on ourselves that is, shall we say, anti-absurd.

As Stevenson asks above, what is all the pother about?

Stevenson’s “An Apology for Idlers,” published in 1876, is one of our favorite essays. We had a collection of his essays in our carry-on while we traveled. The old Scot is an inspiration. On this idea of self-importance, Stevenson was wise to the deception. The world rolls on…

“Suppose Shakespeare had been knocked on the head some dark night in Sir Thomas Lucy’s preserves,” he writes, “the world would have wagged on better or worse, the pitcher gone to the well, the scythe to the corn, and the student to his book; and no one been any the wiser of the loss.”

Indeed. And so too, do not fret over unanswered e-mails. Do not worry over work left undone. Don’t let society lay guilt upon your conscience for getting up late. Don’t let the fact that you let that big client get away ruin your afternoon. Don’t let your neighbor’s financial success plant envy in your heart.

Instead, be carefree. Be detached. Recognize the futility of it all.

Another one of our favorite philosophers is Lin Yutang, who wrote The Importance of Living. (Well worth it – you will always keep this book around. You will find you dip into it now and then. You will find inspiration and soothing words from a man who knew how to live.)

Lin Yutang, wrote “the most bewildering thing about man is his idea of work and the amount of work he imposes upon himself.”

That’s what the absurd helps us understand. It’s all self-imposed. “One must start out with the belief that there are no catastrophes in this world,” Yutang says. Nothing matters. Nothing at all.

But before you can get there, you may have to start small. That means laughing off a spilled cup of coffee… not fretting over missed appointments… meeting disappointment with a shrug… not worrying over things left undone. “On the whole,” Yutang reminds us, “if one answers letters promptly, the result is about as good or as bad as if he had never answered them at all.”

It really doesn’t matter. That’s the freedom that comes with the absurd. The weight of the world’s troubles – all its noise and clanging and banging and bright lights and violence – slips off your back.

3 comments:

  1. I'm still learning about absurdism, so forgive me if I make some errors.

    You seem to be espousing a kind of nihilism:

    "That means laughing off a spilled cup of coffee… not fretting over missed appointments… meeting disappointment with a shrug… not worrying over things left undone. “On the whole,” Yutang reminds us, “if one answers letters promptly, the result is about as good or as bad as if he had never answered them at all.”

    If life has no meaning, nothing we do matters. That seems to me what you're saying. But an absurdist recognizes life has no meaning, and still partakes in it. An absurdist would show up to the appointment on time, return the letters, but wouldn't delude themselves into thinking it had some purpose. They would do it for the sole reason that it satisfied them.

    "It’s not the hustle and bustle, or the work itself that we object to. It is the feeling of self-importance that comes with that. It is the stresses and anxieties that we put on ourselves that is, shall we say, anti-absurd."

    If we recognize that life is absurd, yet still choose to feel self-important, stressed out, and anxious, then how is that anti-absurd? We can each choose how to react to the absurd. The important point, it seems, is whether we do it with a sense of irony or not. A sense of humor.

    I have an iphone, and I work in business. I am often stressed and anxious--yet I still believe that life is absurd. And I look upon my own life with irony; I enjoy the fast paced lifestyle I live, I enjoy the money, yet I have no delusion that it fulfills any universal purpose. It only fulfills my own purpose.

    It seems to me that any directions on the right way to live the absurd life are misplaced: we each find our own personal meaning in the face of the absurd.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not everything is self-imposed, some people are dying and suffering and in need of help.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eckerstein - I, too, am new to the absurdist philosophy. However, it seems to me that it would be impossible to feel self-important if you think the self is a myth, stressed out if you have no desires, and anxious (about what?) if you realize that there is no meaning in life. That is not to say I have eliminated those things from my life, but that is where I think I would be if I totally bought into the absurd philosophy.

    Thomas - Everyone is dying. Suffering is self-imposed. A saying from Zen (that I think applies here) - "pain is part of life, suffering is optional." Note again, I say this philosophically, and do not presume to "live this" at this time in my life. Another comment - Zen seems to be very similar to absurdism, EXCEPT Zen posits a connection between all sentient beings which drives compassion for all others, whereas I do not think that is true of absurdism.

    ReplyDelete