Sources: Ernest Becker – The Denial of Death: https://amzn.to/4e6Wpcv Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg & Tom Pyszczynski – The Worm at the Core: https://amzn.to/3C4wi8O
My thoughts:
This is a deep and thoughtful look at some deep questions and feelings that can come up when you experience a sudden swerve in what you thought your life was.
The whiplash and the confusion, and also the searching for why really spoke to me, but I couldn’t get rid of how this made me question some of the fundamental beliefs or feelings that the author had.
For me I feel like the assumed need for a reason to life or a bigger connection to a group or idea is something I’ve pulled away from, and instead seraching for what makes life enjoyable.
The author seems to feel that we have too much awareness for our own good, we are under-equipped for a life that is so amorphous and out of our controll, but I would counter that with what if that sense of fear and weight was just the lonelyness and lost feeling of being isolated in the world, of not being able to feel or express youself, of now being able to use the tools we have to create joy instead of seaching for a greater meaning.
I don’t think the point of this piece was to say that he doesn’t look for joy, and the situation he and his fiance were experiencing was truly heartbreaking, but it just made me feel that he is coming from a place of feeling lost in this world which I can fully empathize with, but I don’t think we find meaning in this world I think we create it with others.