I’ve stated this many times to my friends and family that the one aspect about my personality that I have always been frustrated by is my lack of specific interest or skill. Since a kid I have always been pretty good at everything, not great, but just okay. In a negative way, our culture has taught us that we must be great at something. I don’t think that this only comes from our culture, but I believe it is something deep seeded within humanity. My good friend Peter and I often discuss the idea that we have always felt the need, or the desire to do something great within our lifetime. Like most of us Peter thought his life was leading up to a single point of ultimate glory. That something great not only in his own eyes or the eyes of God, but in the eyes of others would be achieved. I’ll go into where this idea comes a little later. So being somehow instilled with this idea has always frustrated since it’s been so difficult to find something that I feel I am really good at. I’ve always wondered if there is one skill in life that I have never explored yet if I had, I would have had the most natural proficiency at it. What if I would have been the best bocce player all time, yet I had never taken the time to try it. We could also think about with all people throughout all of history. Maybe if basketball had been around in the Middle Ages, Pope Urban II might have been the first Michael Jordan. These thoughts aside, being a generalist, as I have now found it to be called, it’s always been easy for me to fit in with different groups of people. Since I have general knowledge about most topics, I can easily engage in conversation with specialists in most fields of interest. I have therefore begun to realize the significance of being this way. However, in the world we live in, we must do something to allow us to sustain our own lives. In the earliest societies it was necessary to have a specific vocation, and that was surviving. Since no one else was going to provide sustenance for you, you had to do it yourself. As societies progressed, more and more possibilities for interest emerged, because more and more people were available to do a set number of tasks. If you were the only person on earth, you would have to seek food for yourself. If there were only two of you on earth, the other person could seek food for the both of you, while you could pursue something else. At this point in our existence, there is an infinite possibility for different pursuits.[1] So if I am a generalist, and there are infinite subjects to pursue, how can I manifest that into a way to survive, or live off of. Somehow I will have to choose something specific, but I think certain professions allow for this sort of eclecticism. I think the broadest category has to be the arts. Within each discipline of art it is possible to draw from every category of life. A painter can add text, color, images and texture. It can be something physical to interact with. I writer can discuss any topic of life that he wishes. However, film has to be the ultimate media, because of the ability for it to convey infinite ideas, in the most ways. You could say that other arts engage more of the senses. Food as an art engages to most: sight, taste, touch, smell, and occasionally hearing. But food can only convey a small set of ideas directly. Sure food can illicit the imagination in ways that other things can’t but as far as direct concepts, it is limited. This said, how should we now approach film? It is hard to argue that we should only engage in this type of media from now on. There is something beautiful about live drama that film cannot capture. There is nothing like looking at the still image of a photograph. We all understand the significance of every minute aspect of life, but the full significance of film has not yet been understood.
[1] Reality has become more ambiguous than ever before for this reason. When your only task was finding a way to survive, there was no time for contemplation of your own existence. You knew you existed, and you attempted to maintain this. The greatest shift from this perspective occurred at with the industrial revolution. Automation allowed the ability for us to have more free time. This brought a disconnection with nature, because we were no longer in direct contact with it. I think this is where a lot of philosophers, namely atheists go wrong because in a certain sense they attempt to deny reality. The truth is that something exists, and we therefore must engage with it.
1 comment:
Very thought provoking (although at times, in my expert opinion, unnecessarily self deprecating ;-) ). I'm inclined to believe that there is nothing stupid about being a generalist. I've expressed the same concerns before to my inner circle, but I reached the conclusion that I'd rather know something about a lot of things than know everything about one thing. Hypothetically speaking, let's suppose that rather than being a generalist, your one expert and natural proficiency yet undiscovered happened to be pest control? Also hypothetically suppose that you didn't know very much about anything else but spraying for bugs, but you were completely happy because you didn't know how much you were missing out on, in terms of intellectual, as well as aesthetic, stimulation. Not that there would be anything wrong with that, but curiosity is a sign of intelligence and I don't agree with the old saying, "Ignorance is bliss." Not for me, anyway, but then again bliss is relative, based on the nature of ontology itself and differences in personality and intellectual capacity. Based on what very little I know about you, I know that you're extremely intelligent and talented. I've ascertained that you're both left and right brained, and both sides peacefully and uniquely coexist. I also have both left and right brained tendencies, but mine seem to clash more often than not, and in a way I'm jealous--Or maybe just fascinated. Yet again, maybe a combination of the two.
I agree that one's need to, "leave their mark on the world," so to speak, and transcend death in one way or another is a common desire amongst humans. Of course I have an evolutionary biology theory that might help partially explain it, but for the sake of my attempt at brevity (which in case you haven't noticed does not happen to be my strong suit) I will quell the urge to embark on that tangent at this juncture. I don't think that you have to be in any rush to decide right now exactly how you'll leave your mark and down which avenue you must travel to get there (in terms of career choice), but you're on the right track in thinking that you can combine a variety of your many interests and skills to make your own path. Discover what you love, pursue it passionately, and there's no doubt you'll be happy, sustained, and ultimately leave a bold and unique mark. And you don't ever have to stop learning.
Although throughout the course of history philosophers have, because of their curiosity, made great scientific discoveries, you made a good point. Some of us wretched ;-) philosophers stay so busy contemplating and questioning the nature of reality and existence that we forget to acknowledge the reality and existence of nature and get stuck perpetually running circles in our own heads. How very dangerous, I believe it is, to not spend some time enjoying living and nature without questioning it. I've tried to keep a healthy balance between the two. Everything in moderation. ;-)
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