Reflection: A busy life

Today, I was having a conversation with a teacher, and at the end of the conversation, he said something I did not quite understand, and asked me, "right?" So I said, "right," even though I had no idea what he was talking about. Such things happen often, maybe when we are on the call when someone hands us something, or when we are excited, and a friend asks us something that we would not have accepted normally, but on that occasion did accept.

These are instants when our brain, subconsciously, seems to act without the conscious noticing, as if our mind goes blank for a second, and comes back a moment later to realize what we have said. And I am sure it is not just me, but all, who have had an experience similar to this.

In a busy life, these moments pass unnoticed—just another small incident forgotten in the tides of time; we seem to have so much more to do. For me, college applications, activities, papers, summer camps grades, for many their daily work, trips, and events that pop up in their life; they pay their rentals, insurance, houses, cars... There seems to be an endless array of work that we can do, and they keep us occupied for as long as we wish, never giving us a break. I am sure that is how many people feel, and it is, definitely, often how I feel when I look at the endless pile of work.

As I said in my last post, I have much to do recently, and one of those activities involve learning some philosophy and practice writing philosophy essays/papers. I have borrowed a book from the library and have been reading on Kant and Descartes and what they said about philosophy. I gained a shallow yet interesting brief introduction to their ideas, their logic, and what they thought; namely, Descartes' Cogito and Kant's A Critique of Pure Reason; Rationalism, and a critique of Rationalism. Their logic and ideas are fascinating, and studying them shows me to a way of thought, and a way of learning and identifying the world that I have not thought of before. I am not exactly sure how it influences me other than my studies, but I do know that sometimes I have thoughts and reflections and ideas on what they have said, and what I think. These are but the daily shallow reflections of a boarding high school student in Virginia, and nothing more.

But going back to the subject, I find that in a busy life, it is important to enjoy what you do, no matter it is. If you don't, any activity bring just more anger, greed, ignorance, but never happiness. We live in the future—what we aspire, what we want; we live in the past—what we could have done better, what we feel; life moves on, a constant present, the future of the past, the past of the future. We never seem to notice the present, in what we are doing, in our empirical experience, what comes before us in our immediate mind. It seems that Descartes and Kant, when they write and reflect, live more in the moment than we do—they concern themselves with the ideas which come to their mind, and not anticipating the future, or remembering the past. Perhaps this is what we are missing in our lives—the fun and enjoyment in the things we do, even if we perhaps do not like.

In a busy life, we do many things we do not perhaps like to do, or are willing to. But that does not stop us from enjoying them, being in the moment, attempting to do better, and not complaining about little things which keep us from happiness.

When we do this, perhaps we can be more aware of those little moments when we act unconsciously, responding to something we perhaps did not listen to or understand, and know, when we talk, and be happy.