When I think about life I often ask "In one word, what's it all about"? I used to answer this with the word "experiences." This conclusion came out of a lot of reading (existential philosophy) and a lot of thinking. "Experiences" was how I decided what was worth doing; was it going to make for a good story? Now I thought that I was rather good at being open to new things and to living life to the fullest, but I was quickly confronted with the truth by a close friend that instead I am calculated and timid (bad faith). I wont get into all those details, but I will just say that she was right.
This has been troubling me ever since I realized that she was right; I needed to reevaluate my conclusion. The thing is that my error isn't that I am calculated, or that I lack spontaneity. Rather the error comes when if your goal in life is experiences, then consequently you have chosen a life that is completely focused on the self. This may not be obvious, but I think it is true (think subjective isolation). Therefore I have come to a new conclusion that life in one word would be "relationship."
This is not to be confused with just dating relationships, which is what we often think about due to societal conditioning. Rather I am talking about relationship in a holistic way. Relationship as it relates to God, spouses, family, friends, coworkers, and dating partners. When I shift the focus from experience to relationship, I am also choosing to invest my time in others rather than myself. Living a good story is no longer about the quantity of experience, but rather the quality of relationships.
I am not exactly sure how all this plays out in the practical sense, but as I work through it I will undoubtedly have more thinking to do. Therefore providing for more blogging material, which will hopefully prevent another year long blog famine.
