Philosophy

An excerpt from 3 Minute Philosophy:

by Fabrice Midal

“We are quick to judge Friedrich Nietzsche because he went mad late in life, and Virginia Woolf because she committed suicide; we think Claude Monet painted the water lilies so abstractly because his eyesight had deteriorated; we think Vincent Van Gogh’s epilepsy is why many of his works contain such intense colors.

These artists were successful not because, in their different ways, they struggled. The secret, for each of them, is the way they made use of their struggle. Genius is born from the way in which we learn about humanity from our own personal wounds. We find this hard to accept. For most of us, heroes are men with nothing standing in their way, or women with dream jobs, rushing to catch their next flight, not a hair out of place. At least, that’s what we’re led to believe. Countless TV shows and so-called experts promote this fantasy- they try to teach us to always be at the top of our game, to always perform, never to be aggressive, never to have troubling or painful thoughts…

If we listened, we would feel guilty just for being human.

[….]
I came to understand this over many years of paying attention to how often we are judged, examined, and evaluated in order to be selected (for such and such a project, for such and such a job). You see, we have become used to the state of constantly being judged, which requires us never to voice any qualms, troubles, or hesitations.

It’s time to give ourselves a break and allow ourselves to be human.”

What to do About our Struggles by Fabrice Midal

What if we don’t judge what we produce?

Lets praise the unintentional along with the planned & articulated.

Dose of Al