Life’s Constructive Criticism

Life’s Constructive Criticism and the Nature of (Meaningful) Experience

For it may (may!) be that we can ‘know’ nothing more than the meaning we get from the very process of living life. Indeed, just as the ambiguity and imprecision of language and of symbols gives us the opportunity to create a fun and entertaining puzzle to express our selves and be happy ‘playing’ at and with, perhaps not knowing some key important things about life is (at least part of) the point in existing at all. A certain amount of existential ignorance and uncertainty might actually be important, indeed instrumental, to obtaining meaning and to the very reason we are ‘here’ in the first place.
~ OH, A Snail’s Shell, or What I’ve Learned So Far (part 2)

A short time ago I said: ‘It seems strange so few people are interested in individual people’s passions and symbols as indicators of their experience, individual character and even all human experience.‘ I grant my complaint was somewhat whining with a frustration born of my differential predilection and interior darkness, but in a way I wonder if I might also have been complaining about the very nature of human experience. Since everyone expresses their experience in one way or another and looks for meaning in their experiences, and since we are bound to fail, fall short, and do less than desired in experiences with the unknown, the uncertain and the ambiguous that’s an inevitable (and essential) part of living life, we are bound to be attempting to make sense of mistakes and seek significance in what is not right, fitting or adequate.

But this questing and expressing the edges of adequacy in our experiences is the same essential concept as meaning and passion from puzzle pieces: We sense the ‘missing of the mark’, the mistake, the absence, the hole, after a failing attempt better than we perceive the mark before or after a successful attempt. It’s the nature of experience to feel the edges of the hole, the precipice of absence, the inadequacy, the inaccuracy, these things most intensely – and often only intensely experience the accurate hitting of the mark, the fitted-ness of a piece, the adequate filling of a hole by comparison with the experience of missing.

And in a universe (cosmos) such as ours where there are always more wrong (inadequate) answers than (at least) ‘good enough’ answers, it makes sense that there are more people examining conflict, error, evil and terror than say the positivity of passion and love within a wonderful romantic relationship.

Thus we sense the negativity of missing the mark better, there are more negatives to makes sense of and it seems it is precisely the ‘parsing’ of these negative experiences that eventually leads to the positive experiences we want to have and enjoy (by learning how and where to correct course). And in addition (!), if negative experiences might be said to ‘make’ positive experiences, than too (when we finally have them) they also make positive experiences (more) experientially meaningful by comparison and by having learned the positive experience’s worth and value to the individual.

And so no wonder our communication is likewise filled with negativity; the very nature of our human experience is focused more upon ‘the negative’ simply in order to get to the positive. The process is akin to ‘life’s constructive criticism’, the running up of some kind of a flag or marker, some kind of signpost saying hey there’s something ‘interestingly bad’ here – and it must be interesting because otherwise no one would bother with the time and resources to run up such a flag. And so, yes, perhaps it’s no surprise one might occasionally look out on the prairie of humanity (especially the internet) and feel they see nothing but a seething mass of flag-waving negativity.

(I also think when things are going well without significant course corrections we do not quest the edges of our positive experience, or send up a flag to communicate positive experiences as often as negative ones, because we are too busy enjoying them. I might for instance blame this blog on my differential predilection.)

Of course on the other hand, this doesn’t mean one should “full quietus make with a bare bodkin.” Constructive criticism of our life and existence need not be depressing and can be done with a positive attitude and with balanced between analysis and experiential enjoyment:

More positive perspectives consist of things such as living openly to experience, treating the experiences we do have as real and valid, learning that change is like difference in that it is neither good or bad, just something we’re going to experience.
~ OH, Experience and Construct

I know it’s a fairly ‘zen’ thing to say, but I’m often struck how it always seems the only tenable attitude toward life is to enjoy what there is to enjoy of the past (though not rehash, relive and dwell in the past), enjoy what there is to enjoy about the present, and, should you be among those fortunate to have more coming, enjoy what there is of the future to enjoy – when it gets here.
~ OH, Health: Enjoying What Is