Matthew Rubbelke:
Good sir, how be you?
J. J. Knight:
I be good. I just started the publication process today. How about you, good o' chum?
Matthew Rubbelke:
Not terrible, just having withdrawals from the Abbey... I really miss communal prayer.
J. J. Knight
Ah, I see.
Matthew Rubbelke:
Otherwise, balancing school, exploration of reality, trying to keep up with people, trying to keep steady with reading, prayer, and reflection, and of course, trying to keep one foot on the ground, and the other floating in the air....
J. J. Knight
Sounds you're quite busy. I know how that is man.
Matthew Rubbelke:
Yeah, the roller-coaster of emotions come to an end by an existential crisis, and then things aren't so bad. Actually, it's getting more comfortable in the realm of discomfort .
J. J. Knight
That is reality. There's always push and pull that'd create dysfunction. The trick to not only dealing with this discomfort, but to adjust yourself so you can predict and overcome it by pacing yourself into accepting it as inevitable. Once you've accepted it, you'll be better prepared to work on it and eventually, overcome it.
Matthew Rubbelke:
That is what an existential crisis does for the most part, although it is easy to say "who cares?"
J. J. Knight:
As human beings, we are designed to care. We are programmed to stick our nose into everyone and everything's business. That's because of our parasitic nature, but what also makes us human. We are more than mere beasts (or so I hope) because we feel more than hunger and lust. We are able to care beyond ourselves and feel things for other people, and even other creatures. Because of that caring, we feel pressure from multiple sources (work, education, social status, etc).
Matthew Rubbelke:
True to a point, but if none of it adds up to anything o paramount, the question comes up to what does it matter? Just how a crisis in existentialism works.
J. J. Knight
Truth is, none of it matters. We make it matter because that's what we want it to be. We wish to install value into things in which nature would see as invalid, or non-existent. In truth, we also create our stresses by holding onto our basic traditions. If we were to return to nature, as crazy as it sounds (especially coming from me), then 90% of our stresses would disappear.
