Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

World Enough and Time

4/22/2021

2 Comments

 
Over the past few months I've noticed an increase in headlines about mental health issues and despair. These sorts of headlines should not come as a great surprise considering what we have experienced over the past year and continue to experience today.

Pernicious media motivations aside, I believe the growing number of articles reporting on the rise in mental health problems and despair reflect an observable reality. The number of depressed and discouraged people in the world is certainly on the rise.

I'm no expert on the subject, but I believe the deteriorating state of mental health in the world has a lot to do with hope. People who harbor hopeful states of mind tend to have expectations of positive outcomes because of or in spite of the circumstances in their lives. The opposite holds true from people in despair, and as far as I can tell, a great many people have already slipped or are on the verge of slipping into despair.

Spatio-temporal considerations appear to play a large role in hope and despair in the minds of modern people. I don't mean spatio-temporal in a Star Trek, physics class, space-time continuum kind of way, but rather in a simple world and time kind of way. When people perceive they have enough world and time to do the things they want to do and live the kinds of lives they want to live, they remain generally hopeful.

The same holds true in reverse. When people feel the world has closed in on them - that they have run out of room in which to maneuver - and also feel that they have essentially run out of time or, conversely, feel the time they do have has become burdensome because they lack the space in which to spend it, they tend to gravitate toward despair.

Hope and despair are ultimately spiritual matters, which helps explain why an ultra-wealthy, beautiful, famous, influential, and intelligent individual who has the whole world at his feet can be gripped by despair and why some poverty-stricken, plain, unknown, powerless, and dull individual who essentially has nothing to live for can radiate hope.

People who believe they are of the world and only the world and that their time in the world is not only finite, but the only time they have ever had or will ever have are going to find it increasingly difficult to remain hopeful as the world continues to draw in all around them. 

On the other hand, people who believe they are not of the world but are in the world to experience and learn and that their time in the world, though finite, is not the only time they ever had or will ever have are going to remain hopeful as the world continues to draw in all around them. 

People in the first category will feel they do not have enough world left to utilize the time they have at their disposal and may begin to experience time as a crushing burden. Some will ultimately look for ways to escape the burden.

People in the second category will know they have enough world and time to experience and learn the things they need to experience and learn. They will live time in the present that is eternal. They will know what it means to be truly free.     
2 Comments
NLR link
4/23/2021 16:38:49

Timely post. Good encasulation of why people feel hope or despair. I particularly like these paragraphs:

"When people perceive they have enough world and time to do the things they want to do and live the kinds of lives they want to live, they remain generally hopeful.

The same holds true in reverse. When people feel the world has closed in on them - that they have run out of room in which to maneuver - and also feel that they have essentially run out of time or, conversely, feel the time they do have has become burdensome because they lack the space in which to spend it, they tend to gravitate toward despair."

and

"People who believe they are of the world and only the world and that their time in the world is not only finite, but the only time they have ever had or will ever have are going to find it increasingly difficult to remain hopeful as the world continues to draw in all around them. "

Reply
Francis Berger
4/23/2021 16:49:51

@ NLR - Thanks! This is a good example of the spontaneous, end-of-the-day kind of post I write when I lack the time to really wade into a detailed post covering a subject.

For posts like this, I just sit down and write down whatever comes to mind without thinking about it too much. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Maybe it actually worked here?

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.