Contents
An uncommon word describing the ways in which the things we do determine who we are, not the lifestyle or facade we present to the world but who we deeply know ourselves to be.
Kurt Vonnegut in a letter to a class at Xavier High School:
What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.
Friedrich Nietzsche used similar language to describe the project of human life, to “become who you are.” He saw this becoming as something we have an active role to play in, that life is fundamentally creative, when he said “life can only be justified as an aesthetic phenomenon.”
Further Reading
- Shop Class as Soulcraft, a book about how we make ourselves by making things.