c'est la vie
it has been said that all the languages of the world are equally complex. equally complex, but perhaps complex in different areas: verb conjugation, pronounciation, etc. in the three languages that i am familiar with on a prescriptive level, i have noticed one similar complexity.
the irregular verb "to be".
in english, latin, and french this verb has a number of forms and conjugations depending on all sorts of things. and yet this verb can be used to create the simplest sentences. "it is true", "canis est in via", "c'est triste".
its a paradox--deceptively simple, and yet it seems only proper that such a verb should be used to describe existence. why is it that we must have so many forms of this word just to describe what something is, who we are? if language truly is the outward expression of our thoughts, then we must think of existence in a number of complex ways. maybe this is why some of the great philosophers were content just to sit and ponder about life. if i can feel this desk, does that necessarily mean it exists? if i can say that the flower is red, does that mean it is truly red? or is it about color pigment and the reflection of light? what does it really mean 'to be'? who are you? if anyone were willing to really think about a question like "who are you?" they could go on for hours. the complexities of life seem to dwell in this verb in all the languages i have learned--and possibly all the languages of the world. it is abstract in that it does not denote action and it takes many forms depending on subject and time. all other verbs seem to spring from this one: if i am, i am running. if i am alive, i am living. you can't run, jump, walk, live without first being.
and if you haven't been living in a hole all your life, you know the famous soliloquoy that begins "To be, or not to be". hamlet says this to begin his speech on the merits of suicide since his existence now seems so miserable.
all the complexities, the unanswered questions, the merits of life and death.
but that's life.
3 Comments:
I see that you’ve gone toward the deeper end of the thought spectrum in this latest post, grasshopper. Is it truly curiosity and a questioning of life, or has this questioning surfaced because of your language lessons?
In any case, there is nothing too complex about life, for it is one of the simpler things of existence. Just like within all of nature, simplicity rules and thrives in the smallest of things, and the shortest of moments. We as humans are the ones that search for complexity, seeking for multifaceted and multilayered responses to such simple questions. We are the ones that make it complex; we are the ones that seek for understanding in difficult and intricate answers.
Life is.
But humanity will still keep searching until we are able to accept that simple answer.
why is it so simple for you, i wonder? in anatomy i studied how the ear transmits sound and it is one of the most complicated things i had to learn for that class. in bio, it was much the same with the catalysts and enzymes and genetics we covered. our very bodies are complex! and the fact that what i'm typing and thinking this very moment requires more neurological processes to occur in a second than is possible by human hands is completely incredible!
so i suppose this question doesn't really spring from my language lessons--they just emphasized what i believed before. i think it orignally came from some intellectual movements we had to study in euro history a couple of years ago--the philosophes of france, etc. the questions i posted were some of the questions posed by thinkers of specific movements. i wondered why they would spend so much time wondering and, like you, i figured that a lot of things were just as they were, rather simple. i always figured they were picking at straws, thinking in armchairs for lack of something better to do.
maybe we search for complexity because we are complex ourselves. maybe we make life complicated because we want to believe that there is more to life than just eating and sleeping and going on with the day. life may be simpler than i think, but finding what i'm looking for is not.
Maybe it is a matter of perception, then? After all, for me, life isn’t about sleeping and eating and going on with the day.
It’s about living.
And to live you need not look towards the complexities, but the simplicities. If you live life by wondering and looking for answers, then you will spend your life in a never ending search, and when you come to the end of your path you will see that your answers have not been found and your life was wasted in your questions.
Take joy in a ray of sunshine, in raindrop, in a smile and a simple, everlasting moment, and I assure you that you will find happiness, for it is there for any of us to reach. We just need to know how to look, and learn how to live.
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