Much Ado About Nothing

 

"Alison, I know this world is killing you

Oh, Alison, my aim is true, my aim is true."

Elvis Costello

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Dear Kate,

Last night a friend asked for "wisdom" on real estate decision.  I know he wasn't asking for philosophizing, but what else do I have?

We all philosophize.  My dog doesn't, and that's why the biggest decision she will ever make is where to hide what she wants to hide.  If she comes up with a way to hide things better (maybe by observing other dog's hiddenness), it wouldn't be "wisdom" she discerns to let her present action speak about her eternal destiny.

The philosophy of a human being who claims to not philosophize could (very commonly) be nihilism--to deny that there is some underlying (hidden?), grand (transcending?) meaning behind human existence.

Another common philosophical option is fatalism--to affirm there is no meaning in human actions to affirm because everything is predetermined, inevitable, that everything we choose in life is the only course of action we could have chosen anyway.

Are these two philosophical viewpoints related?  Can we subscribe to both simultaneously?

Superficially read they are at the polar opposite in their practical outlook: whereas fatalism suggests nothing can be done about anything because (who knows why) everything is done for and on you, nihilism asks us to take responsibility for all our actions because there are no god(s), no master(s) to do anything for you.

A person who goes through the motions of her daily grind diligently, responsibly, "faithfully," could she be nihilistic and fatalistic at the same time?

I say yes, if she knows not her destiny.  Living hopelessly, that is, and hopelessly claiming that she has nothing to add to her life but pretty much everything important is missing from it.

A perfect roof is meaningful if my life is full of meaning.  A leaky roof would only give my meaningful life fuller meaning.  How many perfect roofs do we need over our head to feel secure, cared for, our life vouchsafed in its fullness, eternal destiny?

The comedies, success stories we read in other people, why are we so sure they are not tragedies--and not just finally, but even now?  Many buy up houses to hide ourselves, true Selves, from the rest of the world, the face of God.  Home is where hell is, not an uncommon fate.

A "bad" decision, situation is never truly and finally bad if through it God can speak to us; that's where hope lies, faith called for.  The alternatives can be meaningless or fate, dying to live but living to die.

Yours, Alex