“No one will read this, but you should do it anyway.”
“No one will read this, but you should do it anyway.”
This is a favorite quote from my inner Jiminy Cricket. In fact, he likes it so much that he tries to apply the idea in every situation he can: “No one wants to listen to you sing, you should do it anyway,” “No one wants to read poetry anymore (did they ever?), you should do it anyway,” “No one will care if you don’t finish ‘Ulysses,’ you should do it anyway,” “No one will notice if you don’t put on deodorant today, you should do it anyway.”
To be clear, I don’t always listen to this voice (the last time I used deodorant was pre-pandemic). But there is something to be said for taking action in the face of apparent meaninglessness. Whether I like it or not, and whether it makes sense or not, I value these goals. If you put a gun to my head and asked me to explain why, I don’t think I’d be able to tell you. I just do. Perhaps that’s short-sighted of me—something about “the unexamined life is not worth living”—regardless, here I am, pushing that boulder up the mountain with absurd enthusiasm.
Even if I can’t satisfactorily explain why I think it’s important that I do certain things, I can explain why I do them. Pursing these goals, no matter how small, large, frequent, or infrequent, has been an assertion of myself in the world. It’s me saying, “I’m here, I exist, and this is what I stand for.” Those actions have (somehow) created meaning. There’s no reason to push the boulder up the mountain, it’s hard and awkward and painful and seemingly pointless. But if you just do it anyway you may stumble upon something you’d never expect. It’s nothing short of literal magic.
Simone de Beauvoir puts it best: “My contemplation is an excruciation only because it is also a joy.”