Wai-wai-wait! Before you start to wonder, “is this man going emo? Should I be concerned?”, the answer is no—that is, no I’m not going emo, but thank you for the concern nonetheless. The reason why I chose that title is a segue to the topic I will talk about in this post that’s not touched upon much, if even barely.
Before I begin, trigger warning: the following may be too relatable for some! Is that how you use that term nowadays? I don’t think it’s even that bad. Regardless, for starters, let’s begin with some shower thoughts about existence. Yeah, you read that right: existence, or more specifically, the existence of a human living being.
So how does a person exist? The most obvious thought that comes to mind is simply by living or having lived before. After all, I exist by being the writer of this blog, you exist by reading and commenting on blogs, and for all that matters, Emily Dickinson exists by having written those nearly eighteen hundred poems of hers! However, as with poetry, if you look closer into these examples of existence, they all have something in common: a legacy, or in simpler terms, something one leaves behind.
So in this case, I’m leaving behind this blog, you’re leaving behind those comments, and Emily Dickinson had left behind her poems. But if you look even closer, another thing they have in common is that these legacies are all tangible, that is, something you know that exists through your five senses, unlike your thoughts for example that’s all in your head.
Now, is existence tangible? In both my honest and humble opinion, yes—and no. It’s yes because of the previously mentioned examples, but it’s also no because those examples didn’t include the intangible.
The biggest intangible legacy would be the memories you leave behind in others.
After all, not everyone leaves behind something that’ll stay forever or even continue to be known. If memories of yourself are kept alive there’s at least one person who still remembers you, and so you exist in their eyes and by extension to the eyes of others.
However, what if those memories are forgotten?
Pause. Let’s give the floor to the title of this post, which is the song “Forget Me” by Lewis Capaldi. I strongly suggest you give the song a listen to help you understand what I’m talking about next.
“Forget Me” is a song about a girl the singer was seeing after they had been broken up for a while. It’s from his perspective of seeing her life play out in front of him, in which everything was going well for her—without him. Although it had been some time, it still hurt him that he was still suffering from their breakup while she had already moved on.
It’s so relatable; it doesn’t even have to be a romantic interest, but a person that just keeps spinning around your mind. It’s like a constant remembrance of happy memories that you wish you could erase but at the same time don’t.
Even worse was that in the singer’s case, the girl wasn’t even to blame for breaking up; it was his fault and that just twists the dagger stabbed into your heart. Therefore, it was completely justified for her to insult him and he even wished for her to do so just to still have some sort of connection with her.
The bridge of the song uses repetition of lines which serves as a constant barrage and along with the faster-paced singing is akin to the intensity of the constant thoughts you have of that person. The music video remains much to be talked about, but now I’m cutting short on the word count.
Now again, what if memories of yourself are forgotten? Then you cease to exist in their eyes, and it’s the loss of existence that hurts more than the pain any insult could inflict. Even from 8th grade we were told to leave a legacy behind in our junior high school despite only having had 13-14 years of age under our belt and not exactly much to be proud of to show for it. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine if you’ll be remembered for anything in your workplace, as not everyone can be an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos. In the end, the only thing we have for show is through the bloodline we leave behind.
Nice post, Alan!
First of all, I like how your blog page background transitions from light to dark. How’d you do that?
To address your post, I found your existentialism invigorating. Your post reminded me of the saying “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Your main point was that we can prove our existence by things we have left behind, such as our bloodlines or blog posts, which led me to wonder: Are there varying degrees of existence? Will a billionaire “exist” more than a high school teacher? In terms of world relevance, maybe. However, who makes more of a difference on their community? It’s such an interesting idea that you’ve tackled.
Personally, my biggest concern is not whether I have existed or not, rather, how my existence is remembered. The impression I want to leave, reflected in the things I do and energy I put out, is a good one. I’d hate for people to associate me with something negative!
I hope you have an existential revelation soon and find the true meaning of existence, because after all, it’s all relative. Also, nice song!
After reading through your post, I thought that it was an interesting and intriguing read. I do agree with your argument that existence is both tangible and non-tangible. For example, through the things left by people throughout history, we have tangible evidence that they had existed, but on the other hand, for every Vincent Van Gogh, Albert Einstein, or Edmund Freudt, there are many more people that in a sense “don’t tangibly exist” because they did not leave anything in their legacy. When looking at the intangible, I agree that memories can show one’s existence, but they have a limited shelf life as they often only exist among people close with the person in question and often die out with those people, with the exception that these memories are written down or continually passed down generation to generation. Personally, I feel that is still the case for today’s generation, as unless you did something remarkable enough to make it into history such as a scientific discovery, many people would eventually fall into the “intangible”, most likely including both you and me. Social media can provide some evidence that someone existed, but only if the accounts that they are on either doesn’t get deleted or die off when support is discontinued for the social media platform. It’s only putting off the inevitable that the majority of the population would no longer exist and be largely forgotten.
Wow–great post, Alan!