Hey, thanks a lot for this very thoughtful response 🖤
You're right! Overly obsessing about one's purpose can be a very stressful thing to do. Focusing on just living is definitely a strategy that has worked for many.
Like you rightly explained, it gives us the opportunity to live through the experiences we create for ourselves and for others without the pressure to live or act in accordance with some strict agenda.
I'll like to push slightly though on your idea of living through others. While that's great, I imagine that it could become problematic if you live EXCLUSIVELY through others.
If we strip it down to its basics, the philosophy of Ubuntu (as you mentioned) is eerily similar to that of Communism. The issue with both philosophies is that they pose the risk of overlooking the needs of the individual in the process of catering to the needs of the collective or some higher cause.
By referencing those philosophies, what I'd like to emphasise is that while creating opportunities for others, showing love to someone else, and giving meaning to the lives of others, you don't neglect YOUR own need for the same.
There needs to be a balance. Yin and yang.
Living through others is a great way to live, but not when it's the ONLY way you live. Because at the end of the day, you still have YOUR life to live—a life that is just as worthy of the very same love, care, and "a reason to smile" that you so generously share with others.
Hey, thanks a lot for this very thoughtful response 🖤
You're right! Overly obsessing about one's purpose can be a very stressful thing to do. Focusing on just living is definitely a strategy that has worked for many.
Like you rightly explained, it gives us the opportunity to live through the experiences we create for ourselves and for others without the pressure to live or act in accordance with some strict agenda.
I'll like to push slightly though on your idea of living through others. While that's great, I imagine that it could become problematic if you live EXCLUSIVELY through others.
If we strip it down to its basics, the philosophy of Ubuntu (as you mentioned) is eerily similar to that of Communism. The issue with both philosophies is that they pose the risk of overlooking the needs of the individual in the process of catering to the needs of the collective or some higher cause.
By referencing those philosophies, what I'd like to emphasise is that while creating opportunities for others, showing love to someone else, and giving meaning to the lives of others, you don't neglect YOUR own need for the same.
There needs to be a balance. Yin and yang.
Living through others is a great way to live, but not when it's the ONLY way you live. Because at the end of the day, you still have YOUR life to live—a life that is just as worthy of the very same love, care, and "a reason to smile" that you so generously share with others.