The first time I heard this quote I was in middle school, I think. I believe we were reading aloud from these “plays” that we got monthly in English class. My first experience with Shakespeare. And this quote stuck. Whenever asked if I have a favorite quote, I always choose this one.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”
Diary of a Jane: 7.15.2024
Life is crazy. I’m sitting here, thinking (always thinking) of my purpose and my energy and my mind.
Something popped into my head a bit ago that triggered some thinking. When people say, “live each day as if it was your last…”
This is a good quote in sentiment, but in reality then I would never leave my home/loved ones. And I would type on this bIog all day. If I were to live each day as if it was my last I would definitely not be getting a lot done. At least at first. Maybe it’s an okay quote to maintain by.
Because what intentional seeds are we planting today so that our future self can manifest those realities? Then my brain got all science-y, shifted focus toward consciousness. And here we are.
This weekend the Guy and I watched “Ex Machina.”That movie is a brain twister. I was all over the place. I was pretty zeroed in on the consciousness aspect, but there were all these other threads running through.
My ADHD was torn as to which way to pull my brain. But I would say the philosophy of mind won the day. Maybe this is why people say…”My brain was having a field day!”–Lots of gunny sack races and some proclaimed winners.
I was in and out of the movie. I had a plethora of distractions: I have some heavy stuff on my mind. I was with my bestie and kept wanting to chat at him about every thought I had. As brain bendy as it was while I was distracted; I’d like to now watch again, with a focused attention and see what else develops.
In this first watching, I was most intrigued by the scientist character. I personally think he looks like Jared Leto with brown eyes, but that is beside the point. Was he a good guy? Bad? I love a good dualism battle with some ethics of morality thrown in. The movie was really good at making it hard to define him on a moral level. Because to define him on a moral level would be to define what intelligence is and is not. And then to define what artificial is and is not. I wanted to be the robot lady. Life goals! Such a good movie.
I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll save a deeper analysis (cause I had real feelings about some of the relationships!!)
So. Back to where I was earlier (I think). If I knew my consciousness would be turned off for forever the next time I closed my eyes to sleep? What would I do? I think the point is to be where you are like…I would do exactly what I was doing.
That feels simple, really, but of course it’s not. We’re all (myself included) afraid of death to some degree. But, technically, every time you lose consciousness (sleep, get knocked out, etc)…you aren’t guaranteed to regain consciousness. So maybe we die thousands and thousands of deaths. Who knows.
It always comes back to space and time. And then it becomes a lot of fun speculation. If there is conscious awareness “now,” then now is all that really matters. Because you can’t be conscious outside of space and time. Our consciousness is now, always.
There is always a show taking place when you are conscious. You are in the audience or you are on the stage. Or maybe working for to write and produce the show. Beside the point. Life really is a stage, in the metaphorical sense. And often in historical remembrances things take place on a literal stage. Just to really drive the point home.
If we know that we only can experience this moment…should that change our focus? Or does it even matter?
Hedonism would be compared to acting on the stage in this metaphor, living a grand heroic or dramatic story, experiencing all there is to experience in the pursuit of pleasure. Stoics may well be the disinterested audience. Existentialists want to know why the actors on the stage are doing what they are doing. Absurdism seems to be a way to escape–choosing to not participate in the show and to stop watching.
Turning to my favorite, Nietzsche, he seems to push his reader toward a conclusion that the we should look to evolving into the Ubermensch, to be above the stage. And not to watch the stage at all, but rather live actively in the present moment of it.
Back to the quote I started with. Are you aware of the stages around you? Are you on a stage? Or are you a mindless audience member just a long for the break from reality that is being absorbed in someone else’s reality? Is your consciousness really your own?