Finding a Why to Live

 

          Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how.’ Nietzsche

 

            Nietzsche gets down to the brass tacks for grievers. When someone central to our life dies, and it feels like there is nothing left, we need to find a why to want to continue on. We can continue to breathe, eat, and sleep for a long time, lumbering like a zombie through our days, but to feel zest and energy for life again, we need to find something that makes us eager to get out of bed in the morning.

 

            Creating new dreams without our loved one in it is daunting.

 

Suffering

  

        ‘Pain and suffering are inevitable for those with a deep heart.’ Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

If we love anyone, we will suffer when they die because their death will fracture us. Many of us will think that we should be strong enough to deal with grief on our own, so we won’t tell anyone. When others are suffering, they don’t tell us for the same reason, even though we would want to help. Everyone ends up suffering in silence, alone with our thoughts and feelings that circle around and around until they spiral us down. 

 

Because grief will never completely go away, the question is how to live with grief and still celebrate the daily joy of life? 

 

Philosophy of Grief

 a prolegomenon

 

             Philosophy is like sitting in a café and sipping a hot latte. It’s something special and reassuring. It should be a triple espresso and give us a jolt of energy because it opens a window into a convoluted problem and we can finally see the genesis of an answer. It should roust us into spirited discussions.

 

            A philosophy of grief should help those who are grieving understand what is happening, guide us in learning about ourselves, and help us find meaning in our experiences. It should also enable us to see how our personal suffering, the grief of one individual, fits into the larger context of the suffering going in the world.