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Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines BEING as the quality or state of having existence; something conceivable as existing; something that actually exists; the totality of existing things; conscious existence; life; the qualities that constitute an existent thing; a living thing, especially a person. How we are BEING is the sum of our experiences at any moment in time. Our realities are present in our lives through our actions and the words we think and speak. We have all experienced BEING fearful, angry, cynical, withdrawn, or hopeless. We also have experienced BEING courageous, peaceful, accepting, and loving. Doesn’t it seem as though our circumstances control how we are BEING? We get angry when something happens that upsets us, or perhaps it is something that we have learned that we “should” be angry about. At Christmas or other holidays, we have learned that we “should” be happy. It almost seems that we have no choices. Can you remember being a kid with a wide-eyed, bushy-tailed view of the world? It usually scared our parents and other authority figures, who filled us with “don’t this,” or “don’t that,” and we began learning to be resigned to our fate just as they were resigned to theirs. We sometimes retained our enthusiasm until we were stopped cold by a failed relationship or thwarted dream. Many of us began to exist in a state of apathy and resignation after we attained adulthood. Our unthinking retreat into resignation could last a lifetime. Unfortunately, BEING is not taught in most schools. We learn about many different subjects, like math, English, history, philosophy, psychology, and languages. These subjects are supposed to prepare us to be adults. Can learning facts, methods, and theories prepare us to have satisfying and fulfilled lives? That’s where the study, or rather the practice, of BEING comes in. There’s nothing to study, nothing to be tested on, only BEING. The formal study of BEING is a branch of philosophy called ontology, and philosophers from Socrates to Heidegger and Kierkegaard have inquired about it for centuries. In this Game, it is not a subject to learn about, rather a habit or practice to develop. |
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