Transcript Key Questions S1 Ep04: By the Hoary Hosts of Existentialism!
TW: Suicide
It's been a hard couple of years for me, between incapacitating disability, failing mental health, and the death of my grandmother. I've gotten more and more fascinated by death memento mori, and the macabre. The media that uplifted me the most became largely about death. I never had the right words for why it helped. But Matt Key's words are exactly right, and exactly why. I needed to stare into the void until I was okay with it existing. Make it normal, even trite and boring, so it couldn't be horrifying.
1:52 Matt: "French Algerian philosopher Albert Camus once said, "There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide. [The Myth of Sisyphus, 1965]"
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17:31 Matt: "So, as someone who actually struggles with suicidal depression, has struggled, learned to manage, the big D, clinical, here's how Dr. Strange has helped me. Another existentialist, Martin Heidegger, suggests we should spend more time in graveyards. In other words, if you accept the inevitability of your death instead of running from it, you'll live a happier, more authentic life.
"So, if you're having a hard time finding meaning in your life, if the absurdity of life is too much, the randomness, the lack of direction, or meaning, or what have you, if it's too much and Camus question is weighing heavily on your soul, take a moment, do what Dr. Strange did, take a peek at the infinite, and let that fully define you. Live authentically inside the realization that you are not infinite. That this, all of this, will one day end. Realize that grief allows celebration, that tears allow laughter, and you can always be surprised by joy. That's the deal with Dr. Strange."
18:50
