Thank you for the outstanding essay! Beyond mere metaphor this transcends thought. It points to how, from our first gasp at birth onward, it is our action that plows the furrow of our life ! And it is quite exactly about society's situation today. "Ours (Theirs) is not to reason why, Ours (Theirs) is but to do and die" (The Charge of The Light Brigade) https://interestingliterature.com/2021/06/tennyson-theirs-not-reason-why-theirs-but-do-die-meaning-analysis/
I often think of how some people go on weekend camping trips. For two days, they give up comfort to experience 'nature'. Perhaps they climb a mountain that does need to be climbed.
Why? What need does this fill? It indicates that something isn't quite right about those other five days of the week.
A subsistence farmer, poor but successfully feeding and housing his family, probably does not spend the weekend looking for fulfillment. Feeding and housing his family is all the fulfillment he needs. Many of us have jobs that, if we didn't do them, it wouldn't make that much difference. Those people are likely to seek a challenge, artificial as it may be, that gives their existence meaning.
I completely agree with your intuition on this - the poor farmer has a deeply rooted sense of purpose because every action is life sustaining, muscles are used, things are done. The work/life balance was never a balance - it was simply life and it was fulfilling. Thank you for adding this in.
We certainly seem--as a species--to do our best when we are challenged in some specific way. And we don't always thrive spiritually, morally in abundance. We rot inside with a mean sense of entitlement and wonder why life seems to have no purpose. But I'd say few people lean into the wall of fire. It's not for everyone. The purpose for each is out there (and really, 'in here'). Few will think it important to seek it out. War and struggle and displacement and... plain hard work give those who experience them focus like nothing else. Thank you Sam
I'm stoked you enjoyed it. You raise an interesting point that few will seek it out. I think that's the problem exactly. We never really had to seek it out since nature brought it to us. It might be that seeking it out is the art of living in affluence.
Powerful as always. How we live can eventually provide a meaningful why. Passive living does not provide answers for thriving. Important perspective for those who don’t have a good answer to those questions yet.
Brilliant, Sam! 👏 Starts to provide an answer to the cycles of war lust that surge across civilizations (a big one is starting now as the last WWI vets are passing away).. We are just not built for bourgeois contentment!
I'm brought back to a question my spouse and I continually ask ourselves in the context of our children: religion. I'm not religious and our children have been raised without that structure, and by most standards, they're affluent. Now that they're teenagers, I wonder how the structure and purpose from a broader framework (like war or religion) can be developed (if possible?). Otherwise, we're likely to float along, wondering what's the purpose of it all.
For my part, I think it is all interconnected. It is an engagment with the world around us without waiting for some magical meaning to arise from within. I imagine you feel this while hunting, especially when it really begins to suck, and when simply being warm is the best thing in the world.
Thank you for introducing Junger to people. He is one of those singular figures of the 20th century who cannot be pigeonholed, but stands apart as a reference point of uniqueness in perspective that casts light on every side in the conflicts that defined the past century.
I also want to say that it is worth the time to visit the new World War One memorial in Washington DC. I visited it Sunday. It was very moving.
It is my pleasure, Ed. I need to make it down for the monument, I wasn’t aware of it.
Junger was truly epic. He was his own man. The poetry he was able to see in the absolute worst that we can endure, the war, the duty - all of it is admirable.
We emerging from a season in which tens of millions of folks seeking a “why?” crafted one around the cost of goods, around a pursuit of affluence, forsaking any sense of gratitude - for my Pop’s WWII flights from Enzio to eradicate fascism on up to your seeking rocks for cover, or for the simple fact we already have an abundance of nourishing, fruit-bearing, and life-affirming “Why?” option as well as myriad of tools and avenues for create meaningful and fulfilling “How?” pathways. As you have noted, beginning in reverse with a gratitude-centric “how?” Is a good place to start.
Well said, Chuck. It does not take much to look beyond "cost of goods" and a "pursuit of affluence." Our warriors like your Pop can give us a world of wisdom.
I was just saying the same thing in another thread. Junger should be mandatory reading in the military, and far more adopted outside the military. The man poeticized the most extreme hardship endurable.
Thank you for the outstanding essay! Beyond mere metaphor this transcends thought. It points to how, from our first gasp at birth onward, it is our action that plows the furrow of our life ! And it is quite exactly about society's situation today. "Ours (Theirs) is not to reason why, Ours (Theirs) is but to do and die" (The Charge of The Light Brigade) https://interestingliterature.com/2021/06/tennyson-theirs-not-reason-why-theirs-but-do-die-meaning-analysis/
You are very welcome, that is a stellar reference. Thank you for sharing this.
I often think of how some people go on weekend camping trips. For two days, they give up comfort to experience 'nature'. Perhaps they climb a mountain that does need to be climbed.
Why? What need does this fill? It indicates that something isn't quite right about those other five days of the week.
A subsistence farmer, poor but successfully feeding and housing his family, probably does not spend the weekend looking for fulfillment. Feeding and housing his family is all the fulfillment he needs. Many of us have jobs that, if we didn't do them, it wouldn't make that much difference. Those people are likely to seek a challenge, artificial as it may be, that gives their existence meaning.
I completely agree with your intuition on this - the poor farmer has a deeply rooted sense of purpose because every action is life sustaining, muscles are used, things are done. The work/life balance was never a balance - it was simply life and it was fulfilling. Thank you for adding this in.
Wow! If these words don’t wake someone from “self-pitty”! I read this essay as continuation of last week’s.
As I said before, do not leave room for the “why” - just do!
That is it!
That story touched my heart.
There is something good in every thing.
I'm grateful you enjoyed it, Charles.
We certainly seem--as a species--to do our best when we are challenged in some specific way. And we don't always thrive spiritually, morally in abundance. We rot inside with a mean sense of entitlement and wonder why life seems to have no purpose. But I'd say few people lean into the wall of fire. It's not for everyone. The purpose for each is out there (and really, 'in here'). Few will think it important to seek it out. War and struggle and displacement and... plain hard work give those who experience them focus like nothing else. Thank you Sam
I'm stoked you enjoyed it. You raise an interesting point that few will seek it out. I think that's the problem exactly. We never really had to seek it out since nature brought it to us. It might be that seeking it out is the art of living in affluence.
Powerful as always. How we live can eventually provide a meaningful why. Passive living does not provide answers for thriving. Important perspective for those who don’t have a good answer to those questions yet.
On point, brother.
Indeed. Thank you very much.
You are most welcome.
Brilliant, Sam! 👏 Starts to provide an answer to the cycles of war lust that surge across civilizations (a big one is starting now as the last WWI vets are passing away).. We are just not built for bourgeois contentment!
"Bourgeois contentment" is a great way to put it. I'm glad you enjoyed this, Baird. Thanks for reading.
I'm brought back to a question my spouse and I continually ask ourselves in the context of our children: religion. I'm not religious and our children have been raised without that structure, and by most standards, they're affluent. Now that they're teenagers, I wonder how the structure and purpose from a broader framework (like war or religion) can be developed (if possible?). Otherwise, we're likely to float along, wondering what's the purpose of it all.
For my part, I think it is all interconnected. It is an engagment with the world around us without waiting for some magical meaning to arise from within. I imagine you feel this while hunting, especially when it really begins to suck, and when simply being warm is the best thing in the world.
Yes, and to be honest, those moments in the chase are when I feel most alive...there is only one thing to focus on.
It is one of the best drugs on earth
Thank you for introducing Junger to people. He is one of those singular figures of the 20th century who cannot be pigeonholed, but stands apart as a reference point of uniqueness in perspective that casts light on every side in the conflicts that defined the past century.
I also want to say that it is worth the time to visit the new World War One memorial in Washington DC. I visited it Sunday. It was very moving.
It is my pleasure, Ed. I need to make it down for the monument, I wasn’t aware of it.
Junger was truly epic. He was his own man. The poetry he was able to see in the absolute worst that we can endure, the war, the duty - all of it is admirable.
We emerging from a season in which tens of millions of folks seeking a “why?” crafted one around the cost of goods, around a pursuit of affluence, forsaking any sense of gratitude - for my Pop’s WWII flights from Enzio to eradicate fascism on up to your seeking rocks for cover, or for the simple fact we already have an abundance of nourishing, fruit-bearing, and life-affirming “Why?” option as well as myriad of tools and avenues for create meaningful and fulfilling “How?” pathways. As you have noted, beginning in reverse with a gratitude-centric “how?” Is a good place to start.
Well said, Chuck. It does not take much to look beyond "cost of goods" and a "pursuit of affluence." Our warriors like your Pop can give us a world of wisdom.
Sadly, Junger is not read as much as he deserves to be.
I was just saying the same thing in another thread. Junger should be mandatory reading in the military, and far more adopted outside the military. The man poeticized the most extreme hardship endurable.
Tremendous! much gratitude for essay! Abide!
You're welcome!
“Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.”
Great write up Sam.
I appreciate it brother.
Politicians pick at the holes.