Kauai

To Live is Art

Facing the probability that no afterlife exists to offer some preset purpose in life, it becomes the prerogative of the individual to give meaning to his own existence. Unfortunately, most lead unexamined lives that either rely on some text or religious figure to do that work for them or ignore the sublime entirely and find no greater use for themselves but the empty task of making money—mere subsistence in excess. To those who want something more, but do not adhere to any dogma, the task then becomes to craft a life as one would craft a work of art. Art offers profound aesthetic experiences and requires its audience to ask questions and think deeper. In life a man must take time to savor his emotions, both the good and the bad; in other words, to feel, to live in ones feelings. Too often I find myself looking back on my day or my week and realizing I didn’t feel a goddamned thing. I drove around in my air-conditioned car, easing on the breaks at the traffic lights, barely even feeling the inertia of the car. I worked without emotion. I sat in my climate-controlled room and stared blankly at a worthless television show. The entire week could’ve gone by completely without notice, save the discrepancy in the calendar. Dozens of forgettable weeks stacked together add up to a wasted life completely gone by before any actual living has been done. There must be genuine aesthetic and emotional experiences to punctuate the mundane—to read great literature, to hear great music, to enjoy nature, and most importantly to genuinely connect with others emotionally. This is aesthetic side of living life as art. Secondly, there is the task of doing something meaningful with one’s existence. If one cannot make a career out of something meaningful, something that is more than simply a job or a source of income, then one must lead a meaningful inner life. It is a tragedy to look back at the end of life and find nothing in it that has made the world a better place, made another person truly happy, or that nothing lasting has been accomplished. We all wish for immortality, but can only find it through leaving a legacy—a great deed to be remembered by, children raised that will live on to hopefully do great things, or some cause to have lived for. It may be that even these accomplishments may be wiped from existence in an entropic universe, but at least someone made a stand against the void—and nothing can change that. It is therefore my wish to be an artist, with my own life as my medium. To craft an existence filled with powerful experiences and imbued with some meaning that will hopefully outlive my body. When the final brushstroke is made, a thing of beauty will remain.