Your life
Ok. Let’s play a game. Suppose that there is someone out there to save you. Someone to free you of the nasty task to think, believe and act for yourself. Let’s suppose that you can get to the point where your whole life is figured out. Maybe you don’t know exactly everything what will happen in the future, but you’ll know that no major changes will occur. You will know that there are no surprises left, that you can stop thinking about it all, that you can stop worrying. Stop worrying, isn’t this what you so desperately want? Like a broken clock ticking back and forth that has finally come to a rest?
The game is called: “the other game” or “the want to be loved” Why loved? Because behind the idea of being loved is the idea of being saved and behind the idea of being saved is the wish to stop worrying and behind the wish to stop worrying is the crave to get rid of the burden to live, of the burden to take responsibility for the single and precious life that is only yours. Of the life that only you can live and that only you can miss. To miss your life is frightening. Time passes and no one can accomplish that task but you: To not miss your life. What’s so bad about missing my life? Nothing, you will still live a lot of stuff being composed by the societal environment around you. You can’t miss what’s never been there. See it rather as a chance, your chance to unpack a mystery box. The mystery box that is you. It’s totally up to you how much, how fast and how deep you want to go. And it’s not about coming to an end. There is no end. There is only an infinite but finite number of opportunities to unravel the mystery that is your life. Play the game that is called your life. No one can play it but you. No one can carry you through this one.
Society is not wanting – or euphemistically speaking – not supporting you to play this game. It says there are other people that exist, that there is knowledge that has been produced, that there is the other, that you must understand, follow or obey first to be able to play in the “real world”. A humble fiction. But what’s fiction and what’s real, that’s all up to the point of view you take, right? Don’t be scared, taking a different point of view and playing your game doesn’t mean to go against society and everyone else or against everything that has been build. It changes the whole look of it. You can now see the socio-physical environment around you as the playing field for your game to unravel yourself. You actually need it, you appreciate it, you thank the people who came before you to have built it, you look open at the people who share the same presence as you, engaging in the same game knowing- or unknowingly. And you trust the humans that come after you to do the same, to forgive you, for your way of shaping the world trying to figure out who you are, but also to ignore you in their challenge to find their own way. Let’s play a game. It’s called your life. No one can play it but you. No one can tell you how to do it. No one can carry you through this one but you. Only the You that is present right now can figure out the next steps. You have a right to be there. The only right. Ok? But how do I figure out the next steps? How do I find myself? You’ll know when it’s you. So, I have it all inside of me just not accessable for my mind. And I access myself through engaging with the world? That’s what we all do. Every day every week, every year. Can you take my hand? Ok. But I’m not here to save you. I know but I like the warmth of your skin. It reminds me that I am not alone. I play alone but I am not alone. Help me to nether forget that.
Jannik Howind, Witten 13.07.2022