Humans tie their legacy up with a vision that defines the essence of their existence. The fact that we die and the mortal and superficial nature of this existence is revealed it what frightens us most. We don’t want to live live forever, but rather we want to maintain the illusion that our actions and legacy will be relevant.
We live our lives and sometimes wonder why, who, how? But ultimately people try to tie their lives with a legacy. Living our lives we are scared of our existence and the fact of dying. However the illusions that we create change the perspective and move us forward to keep things relevant.
The frightening part of life is that we die because that's how our nature works with our existing.
"Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter." (Albert Camus, The Stranger)
Albert Camus used this quote in his book 'The Stranger' and it was a really important quote since it was greatly reflected. Death may seem scary but everyone will face it. And this nature of death is scary but being mortal is this way. People use religion to cope this fear, and it sure does work.
Nature doesn't reveal much until we look inside our existence.
“Start breaking free from the long reach of your childhood and how it had impacted your ability to feel a sense of belonging.”(On Being the Outsider)
The quote mentions how people lose their feel of belonging from their childhood. However losing their sense of belonging is only reachable when you come out of that long reach of your child hood and take control of yourself and loose the training wheels of your childhood.
We step out and continue to journey across into our future.
A legacy starts and will continue when its a strong source of interest to many.
“Young people become bored with their own culture, it loses meaning for them”.(The cult of the outsider)
“The day after the funeral, he goes swimming, starts a meaningless affair, then strolls off to the movies to see a comedy.” (Albert Camus' Poker-Faced ‘Stranger’ Became A Much Needed Friend)
After having no feelings for a funeral, Camus writes about the meaningless affair and the movies afterwards. He put an illusion onto his actions that made him have this meaningless affair that made it seen real because he had no legacy to follow after the funeral. However like Julia Morgan said “My buildings will be my legacy...They will speak for me long after i’m gone”. She shows how her buildings will be her legacy. Tying this with Camus, he may not be following a legacy but he sure will leave one onto the people he affected which make him maintain relevancy.
Overall, the quote revealed that a meaningless affair isn't always meaningless, they just may be a setup for a further event.
People need to live their lives to leave a legacy and not for it to rot away.
We as humans love to follow a legacy that defines who we are. Even though we may die the frighting nature of existence will ever prolong. We may not want to live here on earth forever, but still want to maintain relevance in our legacy that we leave.
The world can look very superficial but many times looking inside will reveal itself. Many people have many different experiences and ways to look at the world. These were a few ways to look at reality which not everyone looks or thinks about.
- Link List:
- https;//www.phychologytoday.com/blog/the-long-reach-childhood/201211/being-the-outsider
- https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5153834.stm
- https://www.npr.org/2014/08/10/336823512/albert-camus-pocker-faced-stranger-becomes-a-much-needed-friend
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