I am very fond of Jessica Hagy’s blog posts on Indexed and the articles she had written for Forbes. It’s really interesting (at least for me) and in a way, creative to use such a medium to relate life experiences through Venn diagrams and graphs which are commonly used for mathematics. As we discussed the concept of existence and pondered on the question, “When are the moments that you feel you exist?”, I remembered one of her posts entitled Marks of authenticity:
Life’s experiences are always described in opposites: good or bad, happy or sad, positive or negative. In Jessica Hagy’s interpretation, one “mark of authenticity” is that the more “scars” a person has had, there is a greater “proof” that he/she has been alive and I think it’s true and a good interpretation of one’s existence because we will inevitably go through this. I wouldn’t be able to say that I felt happiness unless I had experienced sadness or say I am thankful for finally achieving something I hoped for if I don’t know what failures and disappointments are. Some scars may appear skin-deep only because of shallow reasons such as failing a short quiz and literally-speaking, getting a paper cut – momentary negative events. It shouldn’t be forgotten that others have scars that go deeper and offer a profound and life-changing experiences such as death of a family member, separation of parents, being diagnosed with cancer or being let go from a job in a very difficult time.
But life is a gift and it is beautiful. All these undesirables will not be able to diminish life’s beauty and a person’s mystery. It makes it more real and precious. It tells us a person’s story because the good and the bad things shaped us to who we are now. It marks a person’s strength to survive in this broken world that we live in. As the saying goes, “These times are hard but it will pass.” What we have is a lifetime of existence dealing with all kinds of experiences and I think, to make the most out of life, we should explore what life has to offer and do things that will make us fully alive – to exist in the philosophical sense that we are being.
If you want to find out more about Jessica Hagy’s work, visit her pages: Jessica Hagy (http://jessicahagy.info/), Indexed (http://thisisindexed.com/) and her Forbes contributions on leadership and motivation (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/).
I really enjoyed reading this blog post. It is a pretty good eye opener or it allows one to see in another perspective. :)
ReplyDeleteThere have been times I & other people as well feel like we would have been better off if we haven't experienced those "negative" things in life.
But I guess it really is the scars or negative things that are life changing. Often times, life changing experiences help us grow. & you know you are alive & living when you see yourself grow as a person.
Sometimes it is a harsh truth to hear and grasp but good and bad do have to come hand in hand.
These times are hard but it will pass.”
- Finina Muñoz (C)
Personally, I took your blog on a more theological point of view. A priest once told me, "When God gives you or makes you carry a cross in life, it is not a punishment. Carrying the cross in fact, gives you the opportunity to love." I just felt like sharing this as well. All these hardships we go through in life truly mold us into different people. I think it's just the manner of how we let it affect us and how we will react to them. It's also important though to keep in mind, as you said, " Life is a gift, life is beautiful." By keeping all of this in mind I also believe that we can become fully alive. - Fern Tensuan (C)
ReplyDeleteI liked this post; it's very insightful. It makes even more real the fact that everything we go through shapes us as people and we'll just have to accept whatever comes our way, because that's what living is--and despite it all, it is beautiful. -Tiffany Neri (10:30-12:00)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this post. Indeed, life is full of seemingly insurmountable problems and challenges. But what would life be without these? True enough, these may break us apart, but these are the one also capable of bringing us back into the questioning of why we are doing what we are doing. Is life really a fight that I must give up, or is it something that I must still fight for? Essentially, this breaking process is necessary for reconstruction. These challenges and pain will renew us, refresh us and understand more every point and sense of our doing. They strengthen us and make us more durable in time that we need to face greater challenges. But in this sense, they make us actually close to who we want to be in the end. So that in the sunset of our lives, we will only delight in life and in love.
ReplyDeletePatrick James Cruz (C)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOn a lighter note, this is sort of what I told myself when, while discussing a text with a friend, I accidentally sent my laptop falling from my desk to the floor. It now has a dent and small cracks on its screen that I have yet to admit to my parents. :P I just told myself that the crack is just more physical evidence that my laptop has been with me for a few years now, through many stressful all-nighters.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I also think that that way of thinking applies to human lives in general. This sentence really stuck out for me: "life is a gift and it is beautiful." Life is full of ups and downs and moments you'd rather not remember, but, fundamentally, it's beautiful. The experience of life is beautiful in itself, despite of and because of all of these defining, "scarring" moments.
- Veronica Jereza (C)
I agree that life is a gift even with all the scars and the flaws. This is really relatable to Marcel's "Here I am, what luck?" We didn't have to, but we exist and that itself is a blessing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thank you for sharing Indexed! I find it interesting that simple diagrams can have such powerful meanings.
-Diane Cheng (C)
I like how you wrote about life being full of scars but that the good and the bad things shaped us into who we are. You know when people say that battle scars are a thing that should be proud on, because it represents the soldiers who fought in the country? I think that the world we live in today, the problems we have faced or will face is our own personal battle, so having these battle scars is a thing to really be proud on, because it represents us.
ReplyDeleteTrixia Tan (C)
Going through life, everyone gets scars one way or another. What matters is how we deal with them. Do we block them out and forget about them? Or do we face them head on and deal with them? Different people react differently. However for the healing to happen, it takes time and is only accelerated by looking at things honestly. Although sometimes it might be hard to see the truth, the sooner that we see it and accept its reality, the sooner we can move on. We can choose to treat these scars as learning experiences, making the most out of them and making sure that we learn from them and be better people as a result.
ReplyDeleteMiguel Co (A)
I particularly like what you said that "All these undesirables will not be able to diminish life’s beauty and a person’s mystery. It makes it more real and precious." I agree with this as I think that without those undesirable times, those downs instead of ups, those scars, we will truly never know what it feels to be happy. These emotions are of extreme opposites but we need them to actually be able to distinguish one from the other. Can you imagine if we never had "down" moments in our lives? I think we will never truly know what it actually means to be happy. These scars, these experiences make us who are are as a whole, I agree with you on that. Life is even more beautiful with these scars as it allows us to realize that the more we experience different things the more we actually form ourselves and know ourselves as it is our personal journeys through life that define us.
ReplyDeleteFrenchi Baluyot (A)