EXISTENCE. // 12.01.2020

Today's Topic:

I will be questioning the meaning of the word 'Existence' and what it means to us. Get ready for a lot of questions and confusion but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. 

'Existence' in itself is a very large word with millions of meanings. To simply put it, 'Existence' is a way of living. We think we exist because we are alive. However, even those who are no longer here with us still exist within our mind because they are retained in our memories. Even in the books we read, the things we study we know a person or event has existed because of the stories that have been passed on through the years. 

Although we know we exist, we still ask ourselves, ‘Why do we exist?’

Humans are curious in nature. We question the little things even though there are bigger and more important things in life. We tend to focus on matters which are inside our own little bubbles, not focusing on the big picture. Of course, there are instances where we would have deep and meaningful conversations with strangers, friends or families. Going back to the question, “Why do we exist?” It’s very natural for us to believe that God brought us to exist or we came into existence because of the ‘Big Bang’. This makes it very natural to think that because we have a life we exist. However, when we watch animations or read books there are characters in those books or movies. Those characters are brought to life by the maker and the reader or viewer thus making the characters exist without actually being alive. If the characters exist we once again question if they really exist or not which leads us back to question of our own existence. How did we come into existence?

Everything around us exists because they have been part of our daily lives from the moment we were born, for example, people, the sun, parents, words, cities, planets etc. Yet we still don’t have the exact answer of why we exist and how did we come to existence.

Questioning or trying to find the meaning of the word ‘Existence’ is very vague. There are numerous answers yet none of them gives us a proper meaning or explanation for ‘Existence’. 

We know clouds exist because we gave different clouds names and we see it right above us every day. Usually when you look up to the sky and ask someone "What do you think is up there?" They usually give the answer as 'Heaven'. 

Some may believe in the concept of Heaven and Hell depending on the strength of their religious belief. However, we have never seen Heaven nor Hell. So how do we know it exists? We have beliefs because we are shaped to believe in certain things from when we were young. Sometimes stories are used to scare children and stop them from misbehaving and thus it results in the child believing in its existence, for example, the boogieman. So, how do we know we really, truly exist? We could very well be a part someone's figment of imagination. Or rather how do we know the world around us exists? 

Sounds have been a part of our daily life since the beginning of time. Sounds can be translated into words or music. We listen to music almost every day. A musician expresses their thoughts and inner true feelings through lyrics and music. This is how we know the musician exists. We have particular tastes in music hence the different genres and the musical piece comes into existence because of the artists and more importantly those who acknowledge the work. We keep creating things into existence. It can most commonly be seen in any form of art. Without an artist, art pieces cannot come into existence but then without viewers to actually see the art piece it can still be considered as non-existent.

While writing this blog post, I wasn’t trying to find the answer but rather question it even further. Other people will obviously have different views from mine but that is how the world works. We keep challenging each other and in a way, we give each other existence. I think when we acknowledge something around us that is when things have an existential meaning to them or rather they have a meaning to us and hence they/we exist. 

I’m pretty sure some of the things don’t make much sense but I enjoyed questioning the word ‘Existence’ and what it means to us. This also allowed me to work my brain and try to question things even further. 

Thank you for reading my blog 🤍~!