Lump was limp and lonely and needed a shove. Lump slipped on a kiss and tumbled into love .

The person of the week this week is Albert Camus. His work with the "Paradox of the Absurd" is something everyone should be made aware of, even if it is on the most superficial of layers. Sadly, most of my exposure to Camus was through an instructor on a specific day. However, on that day I read Camus' book "The Stranger". While the book isn't something to keep you up late at night aching to finish, Camus was a brilliant mind.

The very basic understanding I have of Camus' ideas, which is completely based on one lecturer so excuse me if I over simplify or have missed Camus' point. Even if I have I like this point, and I doubt it will entail everything of the concept.

Basically, we live our life accepting the fact that we will have periods of unhappiness, but that is okay because of our periods of joy that are sure to come. However, we are are unable to live with the idea that our life is both of great importance and utterly meaningless at the same time. That is the paradox, our lives are of great importance but utterly meaningless. (everything from this point on is my own thoughts on the general subject, sorry Camus)

If you think about it, it is amazingly true. Our lives are the most important things in our... err... life (some people choose to die for principle, which I hope I never have to do ... so maybe there are things of more importance than your life, but I digress). We may be the most important person in someone else's life, even if it is just your pet. We can accomplish a great deal and change the world, but in the grand scheme of things our lives are meaningless. If you created and deployed a weapon that destroyed all human life on the planet, the world would continue without you and not only survive... but thrive. When you die, your personal effect on humanity dies out with the last memory of anyone who actually knew who you were ... so you have at 120 years if that person happens to become the oldest person in the world. After that ... no one will remember you ... other than as a name in a family story or geneology, or if you are famous in clippings, videos or recordings. In anyway, no one remembers you, they remember or know only part of the story. Even that will fade.

It also extends to your day to day life. Have you ever not had enough time in the world to accomplish anything? You look at the clock and two hours have gone by in a blink? How about when five minutes feels like an eternity? We live in an absurd world where we constantly do not have enough time and yet time moves too slowly. We get into our routines and the days all blur together. Tell me what you ate for dinner last Wednesday. 10 days ago. Chances are, if you''re like me, you just mentioned dinner from two days ago. It feels like 10 days ago though. Now if something really fun happened 10 days ago, it would feel like it happened two days ago in your mind.

We are a weird being with a weirder society. Sometimes I wish I could drop out of it and reboot my mind and unlearn all the crap of our lives, but I cannot. I have however abandoned TV, movies (basically), news, etc. I use the internet for only 4 things right now. School. Friends. Fantasy football. Blog. Will that change over break? Maybe I'll add some more movies with friends... but I like the disconnect from "news" and society. It is sad that I like it so much ... since it means I probably don't fit in with people as much. Sad days.