Reflection, Take It Easy

by Kim Su-Ho

28 August 2012

Discussed Text: Gabriel Marcel, "Primary and Secondary Reflection," The Mystery of Being

There were two dilemmas in today's discussion on whether reflection is intimately related to life, rooted in life or that reflection kills life.

On a side note, there was also a small discussion on the thoughtless people. It's funny since i did not raise my hand when that question came up. I have until now thought of myself to be quite less thoughtful than the average people. I had no plan or whatsoever in my life considering I only took the ACET out of all the universities since I had no desire for better education. I just lived a hippy life, going with the flow, wasting away my time playing games, going out, watching TV and so on. It was whether I get rejected and I just go to a random university in Cebu (where I was living) or simply, I am accepted. Well, somehow I passed the ACET and I was accepted in Ateneo.

Now I'm in third year, at least a bit more mature than I was in high school. This whole blabber of my past is a reflection. I now ask myself, how I felt during this reflection. NOTHING but my awareness that I'm writing this blog. Here I suggest the third point to reflection, I do not object against what Marcel has suggested but I believe, reflection does not always have to have an end result. In reflection, there could sometimes be nothing to it. Sometimes during the span of our life, we have those moments when we are spaced out. With no idea, with no thoughts, with no care for the world, there are times when we just want to be. Or could this be only applicable to me because I am a thoughtless person as I mentioned earlier? I do not know. Similar to how Marcel describes truth, I see no need to complicate it further. Some may consider my words as thoughtless, some may criticize my words as being blatant and ignorant, some may be enlightened and some may not even read this post yet one thing I am sure is that this post in the end will be buried in oblivion. Reflection is a cyclical activity, more or less a continuous and unending process. We reflect one time, and one may feel something to his life or something that kills his life or simply nothing but sooner or later we forget. We watch dramas and movies, let's say the well known Korean drama "Boys over Flowers." Do we remember the feeling, the moral that we got from that drama? Of course we do since I just made you reflect with the question but just before then, the drama was completely out of our current minds.

Reflection, at least in my perspective, isn't something that can be done on one's will, on one's volition. Reflection just happens to be as how life happens to be, like how we happen to have been born. Like the kernel of popcorn without knowing when to "pop!", likewise we never know for reflection. I mean, seriously, do we write our reflection paper for any subjects on a planned basis? I think that would be too cruel to the already heavily routinized modern life of ours. We just feel it when we need to write, and when we have to reflect. So I say, take the reflection easy. Save your ultimate reflection before your breath dies out.