Let’s Talk About Life

Chapter II

“The logic seems to run as follows: we all want a good society; we all have different ideas as to what that good society would be like; let us all go and create a good society on the basis of the fact that we all have different ideas as to what a good society would be like. It is as if the reader is given a destination but no map. Or rather, it is as if every reader is given a different destination and a different map and told to make their way to wherever it is they want to go, all the while assuming that those places will all be the same!”4 Although we have spoken about going through the same life but having a different outcome, for some this might be still a hard thing to digest. But we all know that the truth always hurts the most out of everything. The fact that we all have the same start is visible in the fact that in this world in which we are living there are all sorts of people and personalities and behaviors. This can only exist in the same place at the same time if we all started this journey together. And this is the amazing aspect, this is life as we know it: a unit that is compose of billions of other particles, who start at the same time but have their own direction.

“Everything we do, every decision we make, every interaction with others, is part of the process by which we shape our lives. These actions, decisions, and interactions change us and impact others. In terms of organizational life, this will entail asking questions about why we work and how we relate our work to those things we value in life”5.

Having the ability to distinguish between what works for

4 Business Ethics and Continental Philosophy, Edited by MOLLIE PAINTER- MORLAND and
RENE ́ TEN BOS, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011, pp: 252

5 Ibidem, p.178

us and what does not is a very risky task. We are not always sure about every decision that we take part in but we always have to be a part of it because it is ours. We may not always end up with the result that we are hoping for or looking for but we are sure about the fact that no matter what we have to own it, to stick to it and to keep moving forward. What is important to realize is the fact that a hard period of time or a hard decision does not make us who we are. It is the way in which we handle it the thing that makes the difference.

“Experience brings with it its cumulative disap-pointments and failures. Experience knows how within a lifetime, valued frameworks of interpretation are undermined by shifts in language and history. Yet experience also brings with it the lesson that no matter how bleak the loss of an interpretative framework might seem, negativity is al-ways of itself limited and never absolute. Negations as well as affirmations of meaning always leave more to be said”6.

Just like we do not always share everything, an experience that we are going through will not unveil itself to the fullest. This might seem disappointing. But if we take a closer look at the bigger picture we can come to the conclusion that it is that part, which is not shown to us, the one with the most amazing outcome. And I say this because I believe that life without magic would cease to exist. And I am not talking about magic as in something that is out of this world. I am talking about the magic that we create, the magic that our imagination creates, the magic that helps us when we are left with nothing else. This type of magic might appear as a result to a prayer to some, or as a result to a huge amount of hard work for others, but I also believe that for the most of us this magic stands as hope. Hope for something good to appear, hope for something that will make a difference, hope for a hidden part that makes us believe in something even if we cannot see it.

“There is always within the nega-tion something that is withheld or has been overlooked and that when un- covered is capable of inaugurating a new configuration of meaningfulness. There is no philosophical or theoretical justification for such a hope”7.

Conclusion

Talking. The most common action. Maybe the easiest one. Or maybe the hardest. What we do know is the fact that we need to talk in order to exist – not talking as speaking words out loud but talking as a way of communicating who we are and what we feel. Living in this world, as we know it is a very difficult task. We are always faced with strange

6 Nicholas Davey, Unquiet Understanding.Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2006, p.246

7 Ibidem

circumstances and even if we find it difficult to face them we must do so in order to move forward.

Talking about life, talking about the experiences that we went through, talking about our dreams and desires is something so profound and so deep that is quite hard to explain. Not that we don’t want to but we don’t always find the right words. That is why we have to be there, in the moment, feeling what there is to be felt, seeing what there is to be seen, hearing what there is to be heard. Living the experience will always trump just a pure explanation of what it was like.

But at the same time, sharing that experience with someone else, talking about it with someone who has been through it, who has experienced it, just like you have experienced it, but not coming out of it the same way in which you did, now something like this will take things to the next level. Not a different dimension or a different world, but a different talking experience, a different understanding of one another, of life, of people, of perceptions, dreams and desires.

Being a human being is hard, but being able to talk about it is even harder. Sharing your feeling, sharing your perceptions, listening to what someone has to say, being there, really there, embracing them for who they are, being open-minded, now this is something that will, for sure, make a difference. At the end of the day it is important not to forget where we all came from, to remember that even though is the same life we all live it in a different way, we have different values, rules, perceptions, and it is important to trust who we feel that has earned our trust but at the same time to respect everyone, even if they do not respect us.