Discussion Just a Man.

[MeSauce]

I'm not perfect. I'm not a president, a great leader, or some extraordinary figure whose decisions shape the course of history. I'm just a man. I have problems. Some of them hurt, some of them are difficult, and some of them can consume my attention until they feel like the most important things in the world. But they aren't unique. I'm not special in that regard. Whatever I'm dealing with, there have probably been a thousand people—probably far more—across the world and throughout history who have faced essentially the same problem. Different names, different places, different centuries, same human problems. I have a job. I have a family. I eat when I'm hungry. I get tired and go to sleep. I get irritated. I make mistakes. I worry about things that might never happen. I have opinions that might be wrong. Sometimes I know what I'm doing and sometimes I don't. Most people who have ever lived were like that. History remembers presidents, kings, generals, philosophers, revolutionaries, and criminals because they were unusual enough to be remembered. It mostly forgets everyone else—the laborers, clerks, farmers, apprentices, parents, children, neighbors, and ordinary people who simply went about their lives. I'm one of those people. There's nothing particularly profound about it. I'm a man with a job, a family, some food, and some problems. Other people have had my problems before me, and other people will have them after I'm gone. I'm not the center of history. I'm not an exception to the human condition. I'm just another person living through it.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Do you feel the need or desire to be remembered/ acknowledged by many?

My Mum died when I was 3. To all intents and purposes, she was just an average woman. She worked in an office. Yet, her death left a great hole in so many people's lives. Not worldwide of course. But, people I spoke to were genuinely shaken by her passing. As was I- of course. I got the sense it was because she was a genuinely kind and good person. So- I grew up wondering if it even mattered what you achieved in life. What was actually important? It also made life kind of cheap when it could all be obliterated so easily.

Ultimately though, some people are blessed with the ability, circumstances and motivation to be world renown and revered or- hated and, some aren't. Perhaps the best/ luckiest people in life manage both. They are both successful and remembered for being kind.

It can work in the reverse too- as a kind of curse. For those that want to suicide- wouldn't it be kinder for those left behind if we weren't in fact liked or loved? It would impact them less.

Sometimes, it can help to realise that we are specks of dust. That our problems are tiny in the grand scheme of the universe. But then- we're all subject to cause and effect. We simply have to address some of our problems- otherwise, we suffer as a consequence. I suppose we need to decide individually- whether worrying about our problems does more harm than good.