Creating purpose and intensity in life Options

[coberst]

Creating purpose and intensity in life

I visited a cemetery once and remember this sentiment “She Lived Life with Intensity� engraved on a head stone. It has an appeal to most citizens but I suspect there would be many different interpretations for its meaning.

What does it mean to ‘live life with intensity’? I suspect most would judge that money is the key to such a life. I think that money is the key to comfort, which is not a key that would fit the lock on a ‘life lived with intensity’. I suspect that wealth is often the death of ‘life lived with intensity’.

I will have to recognize at least one exception to this and that is George Soros. George Soros is both rags to riches--fantastic riches in a domain of finance that he alone began--and an individual with a highly developed intellectual life. I read a book about him and also one by him and I find him a model of one who has lived life with intensity.

I think that developing an intellectual life through a self-actualizing self-learning process is the means to a ‘life lived with intensity’. I am convinced that Soros philosopher/tycoon followed that process.

What does this cryptic message “She Lived Life with Intensity� mean to you?

A dilettante just dabbles at this and that never doing anything with intensity. Intensity is living life with some degree of disinterested passion. Disinterested passion is gusto with small regard to self aggrandizement. A person who has developed their own intellectual sophistication lives a life of passion and depth that few others can even recognize. Carl Sagan said “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.� Carl knew what living with intensity is all about. It is about billions and billions while others live with thousands and thousands.

This quotation of Carl Rogers might illuminate my meaning of disinterested knowledge.

“I want to talk about learning. But not the lifeless, sterile, futile, quickly forgotten stuff that is crammed in to the mind of the poor helpless individual tied into his seat by ironclad bonds of conformity! I am talking about LEARNING - the insatiable curiosity that drives the adolescent boy to absorb everything he can see or hear or read about gasoline engines in order to improve the efficiency and speed of his 'cruiser'. I am talking about the student who says, "I am discovering, drawing in from the outside, and making that which is drawn in a real part of me." I am talking about any learning in which the experience of the learner progresses along this line: "No, no, that's not what I want"; "Wait! This is closer to what I am interested in, what I need"; "Ah, here it is! Now I'm grasping and comprehending what I need and what I want to know!"

[Hudzon]

I completely disagree with you on your point about money. While you say that it "prevents" some people from living an intense life, I would argue that those people had no interest in living such a life to begin with.

For someone who is interested in an intense life, money will only help to amplify and explore his potential.

[coberst]

A dilettante just dabbles at this and that never doing anything with intensity. Intensity is living life with some degree of disinterested passion. Disinterested passion is gusto with small regard to self aggrandizement. A person who has developed their own intellectual sophistication lives a life of passion and depth that few others can even recognize. Carl Sagan said “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.� Carl knew what living with intensity is all about. It is about billions and billions while others live with thousands and thousands.

This quotation of Carl Rogers might illuminate my meaning of disinterested passion and disinterested knowledge.

“I want to talk about learning. But not the lifeless, sterile, futile, quickly forgotten stuff that is crammed in to the mind of the poor helpless individual tied into his seat by ironclad bonds of conformity! I am talking about LEARNING - the insatiable curiosity that drives the adolescent boy to absorb everything he can see or hear or read about gasoline engines in order to improve the efficiency and speed of his 'cruiser'. I am talking about the student who says, "I am discovering, drawing in from the outside, and making that which is drawn in a real part of me." I am talking about any learning in which the experience of the learner progresses along this line: "No, no, that's not what I want"; "Wait! This is closer to what I am interested in, what I need"; "Ah, here it is! Now I'm grasping and comprehending what I need and what I want to know!"

[Rick]

What does this cryptic message “She Lived Life with Intensity� mean to you

Could it also mean burning the candle at both ends? Doesn't it also imply that she had some degree of control of the burn rate, and that throttling up is a good thing?

Was it Neil Young who said it's better to burn out than to fade away?

[AbbyNormal]

Hi,

I just stumbled across these amazing forums, and while I intended to gleefully lurk amongst you all for a while, I felt compelled to jump into this topic.

I noticed that most of your examples of "living life with intensity" are all things 'above the neck.' There is a physical aspect to life, too (or have all of you 'eggs' forgotten this )

The person who came to my mind when I read this topic was Ernest Hemmingway. He indeed was a man who lived his life with intensity -- physically, emotionally, and intellectually. He also suffered from mental illness (and I mean he suffered). He was so dynamic, and such a genius, and lived his life with such intensity, that his life (and even his tragic death) have been largely romanticised. Most (if not all) bipolars, although very intense, are unfulfilled and miserable (trust me, I know this one first hand).

As far as the tombstone is concerned, please allow me to play 'devil's advocate' -- just for fun.
Perhaps this woman was bipolar, and her behavior throughout her life wreaked havoc in the lives of her friends and family. Maybe after her passing, the only nice thing they could think of to say about her is that 'she lived her life with intensity.' Who knows?

Still, the romantic notion of a life lived with intensity is a wonderful one, and one that any neurotypical person would be wise to contemplate if not pursue, in this one life of ours.

Oh, and I don't see how money has anything to do with this at all.

-- Abby