Another 164,000 plus cases in the world today. That is two days in a row. The hardest hit countries continue to be the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Columbia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran. Peru and Argentina are reporting high numbers as well. Lately, state officials are treating restrictions like a yo-yo. As infections increase states are dialing back their mandates and other states are pausing reopening phases due to the increase around the nation. Hospitalizations are on the rise, up 25% from last week in the following states: Texas, Arizona, Nevada, South Carolina, Montana, Georgia and California according to Washington Post data.
With all this in mind (and everything else) at times it all seems absurd. The idea of absurdism in philosophy is indeed the conflict of our human nature to find meaning in life through our inherent inability to find purpose in a chaotic and random world. It has its ties to nihilism and existentialism in a philosophical sense. The author Albert Camus wrote all of his works through this life-lens. An example can be found in his published essay The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus in Greek mythology, was tasked with pushing the same boulder up a mountain only to watch it roll down again each time. When we think of plagues, diseases and war or disasters we may think on the absurd. The absurd is bizarre to us yet part of our lives in a way we often do not understand. It reminds me of the children's song row, row row your boat which my friend Tim interprets as truth, that life is just that, a dream. Ought we to be merrily rowing amidst the chaos and absurd. Seeking not the meaning of life, but instead just living and inventing moments as we glide along the stream?
Capturing our experiences like objects in the impossible bottles of our mind?
It is a philosophy Camus would most certainly approve of.
"Life can be magnificent and overwhelming – that is the whole tragedy. Without beauty, love, or danger it would almost be easy to live.- Albert Camus
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