William Shakespeare penned the famous line "to thine own self be true" in his work "Hamlet." Since then it (and even prior to it) that ideology has taken on many forms and been placed on many bumper stickers, t-shirts and used in many cheesy Oprah-esque "Book of the Month" books or movies. Its latest incarnation came in the form of an article (blog post) written by Emily Gordon called "I Was in a Coma (and I'm Not a Better Person Because of It)".
In the article she concludes (after an obviously horrifying ordeal) that the meaning of life is to "[live life] to the fullest." Outside of it being highly cliche, her point is noted and not altogether unreasonable. However, then she continues... "but I think we get stuck on what "the fullest" actually means. It isn't something you see in Lifetime movies, where somebody gets sick and spends the rest of her time "touching the lives" of every person she meets. It means seeking fulfillment in all its many forms. All of them -- even fries, Prince movies, celebrity gossip -- are more essential to your being than anything you'd list on a résumé."
The heartbeat of her article and Shakespeare's phrase is: focus on yourself - YOU are the central character of YOUR life story.
While I've never been in a coma and cannot relate personally to such an ordeal, I do understand the rationale behind her misguided view of life. She (along with Shakespeare, Oprah, Ellen and countless others) is simply reciting the HUMANIST manifesto. Humanism (or Secular Humanism), in a very short summary, is placing people and their existence, needs and desires at the center of the story of life. In other words, the purpose of life: "is to live it" or "be happy" or "find what it means to you".
This way of thinking is wrong in so many ways:
#1 - Life is not about YOU. To think it is, is selfish and narrow-minded. What was the purpose of life before you existed? What will it be after you're dead and gone? Surely you cannot think that your sole purpose for existing is to be all about yourself (and if it is, then why have laws or rules? Why not just do whatever we want without the fear of consequences?). Colossians 1:16-17 declares that we exist because God saw fit to create us and that we are here "for Him" (to worship and love Him).
- Life is HIS story, not ours.
- We are part of HIS story - He is not part of ours.
- We exist for HIM, He does not exist for us.
#2 - If Life is not about you, then our attention and desire ought to be bigger than ourselves (and not because it makes us feel better - but because it is a primary part of our purpose in existing). Humanists get the Second Greatest Commandment ("love your neighbor as yourself") backwards, though... instead of truly loving others, they love others when there is reward in it for them (whether it be experiencing happiness from making others happy, actual reward/award in return, fulfillment in life, etc.). When we love ourselves first, above all others, and base our love for them simply in "what's in it for me" we miss the true value of what it is to pour into people selflessly (and forsake our calling to do so).
#3 - God is the best we can ever have. Not heaven, not eternal life, not friends and family in heaven... simply put: GOD IS THE BEST and MOST VALUABLE TREASURE we have. All the other things are blessings (His gifts to us). People fall short, we fall short, money and things provide temporary satisfaction (and in many ways bring more heartache), but God is faithful and true - always has been and always will be. He existed before we did and will continue to once our time is done. He is our greatest treasure.
PARENTS: While much more could be said of this topic, I will stop for now. For you, as parents, however, the conversation is only beginning! Are we raising our kids to think the sun and planets revolve around them (as if THEY are man's greatest treasure)? Do we say with our lips "I love God," but live our lives devoted to our real god (ourselves)? For more on this sort of topic, checkout the following archived blog posts:
What Pours from Your Heart?
Culture and Your Teen/Child
The New Daughter Philosophy: "Your Daughter and What She Deserves"
Mom and Dad - Time to Grow Up!
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Image borrowed from ArtbyChrysti
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1 comments:
I second everything that you mentioned in this blog about humanism but, I don't think Polonius was telling his son Laertes to be a secular humanist.
It is most human of us to take many sayings and quotes out of context and turn them into special slogans for whatever cause they can be twisted and bent to relate to. It's very relative and humanistic for a person to take something we hear and preceive, and re-translate it to mean what we want it to mean. News media trives on such a thing.
All though Polonius is not the best of characters in Hamlet, this particular line is of good advice to his son, who is about to leave for Paris. He is trying to portray to his son that behaving with integrity and practicality will go good in his dealings with other people. He lists off a few things that are good to know in obtaining that behavior and then he says be true to yourself.
So here we are with the question of interest revolving around the topic discussed; "How can a person be actually true to oneself if they don't know themselves to begin with?" A few people have said that they "found themselves" in some activity of life that brought them closer to what they perceived themselves to be but, what did they actually discover? This person writing this comment begs the answer to be a perspective of the creator of the item that was lost. But even with that, perspective can get lost in relativity.
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