piece of mind vs. peace of mind

wow.  Quite a beautiful day in Charleston!  The weather couldn't have made it any more difficult to concentrate on school work.

All day I was reflecting on a conversation I had with my friend Yusuf yesterday about the future and how absolutely bazar it feels to be a senior in college.  I was telling him how I always had this preconceived notion of what life was "like" after high school.  "I will go to college, major in something, graduate, get a job doing something related to my major, support myself, get married, have a family, work."-That is pretty much how I thought things would go, in a nutshell.  FALSE.  I was horribly mistaken.  Life is not so predictable.  It is almost as if my presence right at this moment, right as I am typing this, is of a state of happenstance.  I did not know this is where I would be, I had no idea what it would be like to be me at this point in time.  Our conscious awareness of ourselves/embodiment is constantly evolving resulting in an almost unpredictably morphing perspective of the world in which we live and are free.  This state of existence upon realization is both liberating and overwhelming.  I think that Yusuf characterized this state beautifully in saying that we are "actively drifting" through life.  This expression feels so organic and tranquil, while still bearing an air of intentionality and desire.  My constant reflection of this perspective has made it difficult for me to prioritize lately-or at least this is how it feels.  Maybe it is just my evolving nature of being that is causing me to rethink my previous notion of priority.


I am sure of one thing-Charleston is lovely in the spring...

"There's only one instant, and it's right now. And it's eternity"

"As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough."

"whatever you do, don't be bored, this is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting"

"The trick is to combine your waking rational abilities with the infinite possibilities of your dreams. Because, if you can do that, you can do anything."

"Life is a matter of a miracle that is collected over time by moments flabbergasted to be in each others presence."

*all quotes courtesy of the film Waking Life

**all photographs taken by me

side affects may include...

Just to put it out there-I am almost positive that I am a sufferer of S.A.D.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this catchy acronym it stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder.  And guess what else...you probably have it too!  In fact, we all probably naturally feel a change in our daily emotions in correlation with the weather.  Why wouldn't we?  We are always completely affected by our surroundings and our environment.  Our Being is inherently embedded in our environment in a way that is almost ineffable.  Our environment and the stimuli and experiences provided by our environment shape our Being and our personal identity.  The relation is that of a reflective nature.  So, to reiterate the point I was making before-it  seems completely comprehensible and natural that we are all affected emotionally by the changing of the seasons.
The past couple of days in Charleston have, thankfully, been absolutely beautiful!  The other day I was almost squealing with joy to my friends Matt and Jack, as we were on our way to D'Allesandro's* to get some amazing pizza, about how amazing the weather was and how happy it made me.  This is when I proclaimed that I had S.A.D.  But admitting this, for me, was only coming to a clearer understanding of my relationship to my environment.  Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical companies have capitalized on my, rather quaint, realization.  In fact, they even came up with an obviously implicative acronym for such an 'illness'.  All so they can sell me a prescription of some kind that will 'fix it'.
I don't understand the necessity of such a drug.  Sure, it sucks sometimes in the winter when it is cold and rainy for days on end and you begin to feel like a crazy hermit.  This is a completely natural human reaction to the season.  In fact, it is a necessary reaction.  Without the dreary days of rain or cold, how could you come to appreciate the blooming and beautiful days of warmth and sunshine?  Like the Yin and Yang, we need this balance.  It is inherent in the nature of appreciation.  It does us no good to drown out the sorrows of rainy day blues with prescriptions drugs.
I suggest that we all, instead, try to understand this relation of Being and environment so that we can be more at ease rather than attempting to diagnose ourselves compulsively.

On a lighter note...BIG shout to whoever was playing the music at D'Al's on monday-great radiohead playlist at the perfect volume!  Really set the mood for an enjoyable afternoon pizza and $2 glass of Guinness.  Made my day!


"For myself...I could only be grateful for an experience which had shown me, more clearly than I had ever seen it before, the true nature of the challenge and the completely liberating response."

-Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

Jack's choice: 'In Bianco' + basil and pineapple

It was scrumtrulescent!  

april showers bring march flowers...

It was a rainy day in Charleston yesterday.  Flowers are starting to bloom!

The petals were just as pretty on the ground.

This beautiful tree is in front of my friends house.  

a green philosophy.

I, Caitlin Nicholson, have decided to start a blog.


That sounds really official, right?  Well everyone (maybe no one depending on who decides to read this), this blog will probably be anything but official.  Don't expect to find any well written, catchy, classy, or politically correct information on this blog.  I mean come on, who wants to read about that boring shit anyways?  I guess now would also be a good time for a disclaimer: there will probably be profanity all throughout this blog.  Sorry.  I personally don't see anything wrong with using 'harsh' words to get a specific point across, and since this is my blog I also don't feel any need to refrain.


So, you may be asking yourself now, "What the hell is she going to be writing about?"


Good question.  


In general, I will be writing about any kind of everyday things I've decided are interesting enough to note.  After all, this is basically a way of cataloging my thoughts in order to reflect on them later, which in a way, could be considered experience error by a phenomenologists standards (but there will be much more on that later).


More specifically, the things that interest me enough to note here will typically be philosophical contemplations (often stemming from the courses I'm currently taking, and casual conversations with like-minded folk) and interesting things pertaining to gardening.  While I am, on the one hand, obsessed with philosophy, I am also (almost equally) obsessed with the 'go green' movement of this generation.  I think that it is extremely important to support any movement that promotes environmentally friendly actions and sustainability.  My specific point of interest is with locally grown/raised organic food.  Gardening is an ancient act of humanity.  Our species was able to evolve and grow so quickly due, in part, to our ability to reap and sow the earth-to cultivate and sustain ourselves through agriculture.  Such a practice is sacred and distinctive to our species.  Sadly, in recent years, due to our exponentially excessive nature, the food industry has turned something so wholesome as a fresh fruit or vegetable into an antibiotic/hormone filled, chemically coated, unnaturally large freak of nature. 
 It is time that we get back to our roots.  Thankfully, people are starting to see that this is not the way to nourish our bodies.  


Luckily, Charleston South Carolina has a great man to lead the way in the local green movement- Mayor Joe Riley.  He, along with many other supportive and dedicated individuals, started the Charleston Green Committee which has made great progress in improving the sustainability of the city.  People have also been starting community gardens left and right!  These are not only a great way to deliver fresh/organic food to the low country, but also to raise awareness of the importance of shopping locally and growing your own food.  I will be trying to post about all the community gardens' progress throughout the season and post progressive pictures.  A good place to look to find out what's going on and how to get involved is Lowcountry community gardens blog.  




So, you may now be asking yourself another question, "What the hell does any of this 'green' shit have to do with philosophy?"


Another good question.  You are really on top of your game aren't you...


Well, to answer your question I would have to say- it has everything to do with philosophy.  I personally have adopted the philosophy of the 'embodied mind'.  This is an idea that is central to phenomenology.  Basically, it is a theory against Cartesian dualism.  Descartes coined the term dualism to refer to the idea that the mind and the body are two separate entities.  Phenomenology rejects this theory and instead insists that our mind is inherently embodied.  In other words, we live and experience the world through our bodies.  Also, we are necessarily embedded in the world.  As put, beautifully by Maurice Merleau-Ponty,

 "The world is... the natural setting of, and field for, all my thoughts and all my explicit perceptions. Truth does not inhabit only the inner man, or more accurately, there is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself." 

If one is to adopt this theory, then it becomes obvious how infinitely important it is that we: 1. care for and properly nourish our bodies, and 2. be conscious of our impact on the world.  For we are nothing without our bodies and the human race is nothing without the resources and energy of the world.