E is for Education and for Existentialism
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E is for Education and for Existentialism.
I like to think I take self-improvement and education seriously. Sure, I’m a physicist by day, flying through my undergraduate degree with gleeful abandon, but I think it’s important for people to have – and to pursue – interests in areas beyond their field. I for one am interested mainly in computer science and philosophy. The philosophy of science is particularly fascinating, and is something I think far too few scientists have ever looked into. Outside of that I try to dabble in amateur philosophy in general – reading introductions to various areas and anything by Camus.
Wikipedia says that "existentialism is a philosophical movement which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to it being created for them by deities or authorities or defined for them by philosophical or theological doctrines." Now don’t tell me that you don’t want to explore that further? Imagine defining your own purpose, striking your own path…
Anyway, I highly recommend The Stranger by Camus. It’s a short novel, but it’s also the best introduction to existentialism and absurdism you’ll ever get. Go and read it. Now.
(Another addition to the August Alphabet Set.)
Self improvement cannot just be a matter of academic exercise by the erudite scholars in the ivory tower but an inevitable phenomenon for anyone no matter the social or economic station of life and whichever way one looks at it this is an inevitable catalyst for crossing the threshold of poverty to the rosy side of affluent life, the more reason why life itself is said to be neither a bed of roses nor a bush of thorns.
It is a common altruism that since the law of karma plays a very predominant role in our common existence or to say that rather simply according to that law that has been with humanity since the very first time that man first found himself on this side of the great terrestrial divide, you can only reap what you sow. This is the reason why it has never happened anywhere that someone sows orange and reaps banana or grows apple and harvest plantain.
There is no gainsaying the fact that for us to lead a very good and rewarding life, we should allow self improvement to be our primary motive and ensure that the type of seed we sow is the one that will germinate to better our lot and that of the people both in our immediate and remote community. Whatever may be the circumstance, our fate lies in our hands so there is no sense in not engaging in an effort that will not gear our ways of life toward self improvement either through the books we read, the social group of people to which we belong and our common daily practices.
While it is true that there are no specific applicable rules to follow for our self improvement practices so each individual has his or her own peculiar cases of what to do to make the life better for him or her than what it is now. Many of us are quite familiar with the story of a wealthy man in the Bible who shared eight talents (the money or the legal tender of the Jews in the ancient history) among his three servants and asked them to trade with them for the purpose of making profit for him. To the first servant he gave five, the second, two and the last he doled out just one.
The story went further to let us know that while the first two traded with the money given to them by their master as expected and made double gain, the third person just buried his on the ground. On his arrival from the journey the master asked them for the report of their stewardship, the first two gladly told him what they did with the talents while the third one only offered some flimsy excuses and the hardness of the master.
In the final analysis, the master just took the talent from the mentally lazy man and gave it to the first person that made most profit from the money he got from the master. By this simple parable, one realizes that it is not good to bury the talent on the ground since one day an account would be made of it to our creator. In the follow-up to this piece, the author is going to talk about some inevitable steps toward self improvement for a better rewarding future.
The author is a self improvement blogger and enthusiast and to learn more about how to live a better and rewarding life as from this very moment. For more details just go to this blog: http://bit.ly/kffyH8
Written by Ade Adenekan
Ade Adenekan is an International Relations Consultant based in Lagos City, Nigeria.
