#meaningfulness

[ashenbot]

what’s the way to explain that I cannot meaningfully make the choice 70% of the time?

[unrelatedwaffle]

*holds you by your squishy cheeks* effort begets meaning. an effortless life is a meaningless life.

Experimental evidence that exerting effort increases meaning

Efficiency demands that we work smarter and not harder, but is this better for our wellbeing? Here, we ask if exerting effort on a task can

[mesaprotector]

Dune is one of my favorite books of all time, and I've heard generally good things about the recent movie, but I have a very hard time convincing myself to give it a chance. I can't recall a time I loved an adaptation more than the original, unless I watched the adaptation first.

Similarly, I absolutely loved Cloud Atlas the book, and my sister's tried to get me to watch the movie but I've hesitated for the same reasons. And this even though unlike Dune, which strikes me as a terrifically hard book to adapt, many parts of Cloud Atlas feel perfectly suited for a movie. Zachry's story in particular, my favorite of all of the threads making up the book, could easily be elevated by music and acting to a whole new universe.

But I have a fantastic track record at picking media I end up adoring - when I'm not pressuring myself to just watch (or read) something.

I wonder if it's just that, having been a generally unhappy person, the rare times in my life when I feel most alive and when every day is filled with meaning also happen to be the times I most want to read and listen to and experience new things. I read Cloud Atlas when I was living in Madagascar and wandering off into the mountains and walking through rice fields in pouring rain. I fell in love with my favorite recent anime on a two-week train and bus ride across the country with a suitcase and a guitar. The past six months or so have not been one of those times, and I feel that if I waited for another glorious season, the context would make those stories all the more worthwhile. If I read a book now, there'd be no context. Just white snow and darkness and sleep deprivation at three in the morning.

[scobbe]

I think it might be a solid theory to help discover what you are supposed to do with yourself to fill-in-the-blank with the statement, “If I take all these things I really love and don’t ______________, it’s all meaningless.” It doesn’t have to be a career or anything and might be as simple as “wake up in the morning” but it is an interesting exercise to do. 

[praggya1993]

There's no end to the meaning

That can be derived

Simply by watching

A setting sun

And feeling a fatigue

Taking over the eyes,

A sight so common

Yet equally prone to being ignored

By the tumultuous minds,

Stop and spend some time

Inhaling the scent of eucalyptus

Feeling it on the lips

That didn't get a chance

To be cared with a moisturising delight

For no practical reasons in sight,

It's never too late

To close the eyes

And not drift in the cracks

That line the heart and mind,

Something enchanting

Is always waiting

Right around.

[psychinfo]

[jrich103]

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.

— Frederic Chopin