The Good Life
Existentialism suggests that it is possible for people to face the anxieties of life head-on and embrace the human condition of aloneness, to revel in the freedom to choose and take full responsibility for their choices. They courageously take the helm of their lives and steer in whatever direction they choose; they have the courage to be. One does not need to arrest feelings of meaninglessness, but can choose new meanings for their lives. By building, by loving, and by creating one is able to live life as one's own adventure. One can accept one's own mortality and overcome fear of death. Though the French author Albert Camus denied the specific label of existentialist, in his novel, L'Etranger, his main character Meursault, ends the novel by doing just this. He accepts his mortality and rejects the constrictions of society he previously placed on himself, leaving him unencumbered and free to live his life with an unclouded mind.
Read more about this topic: Existential Therapy
Famous quotes containing the words the good and/or life:
“Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“I have a life that did not become,
that turned aside and stopped,
astonished:”
—Archie Randolph Ammons (b. 1926)