I’ve been looking a lot into philosophy lately.
‘Philosophy’ you might say – ‘what is up with that grown up shit?’.
Well, we all find interest in different things and after getting hooked up on the debate of religion I sort of took a short detour to the subject of philosophy – which, after all, is not very much unlike the former. Together, both subjects play a role in everybody’s life at some point.
For example, when was the last time you imagined death and your chest got all filled up by that dreadful feeling of unease and complete discomfort? Personally I remember that I used to do anything to avoid these kinds of thoughts, not too long ago.
Shelly Kagan during his lectures on the topic 'Death'.
As I think of it I had many periods, especially as a kid, when I found myself thinking about it while falling asleep and almost every time I ended up with a feeling difficult to translate into words. It was, and even to a certain degree today is, a quite uncomfortable issue to wrap my mind around. However, breaking it down help you see it from an interesting point of view.
The topic regarding ‘death’ is just a single fraction of the great philosophical questions raised but it’s a juicy one that I’ve recently been digging my teeth into.
So call it what you’d like but I’d bet you’d also get interested if you were to here out the lectures ‘Death’ by Shelly Kagan, Professor in Philosophy of Yale University. Not only is he a great character, sitting on the front desk with his legs crossed illustrating large questions with tiny schemes, but he is also an extremely great thinker. I don’t just say this because I share his ideas to at least 90% but rather because I think it does not matter whether you agree or not – you just can’t help but to get blasted away by what his and other philosopher minds are capable of stirring up.
My summer was the most amazing summer in a long time, or rather, for all time so far. Since histology was my last exam and my flight back home to Sweden was the very next day I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders to make it and go home to recharge. At least this was my plan and I believe I’d be a little bit devastated if I would not succeed. However, as the previous post reveals I did make it and could fly with a feeling of relief the next morning. Kristýna accompanied me and more than just my dad met us up at the airport - he also brought the best weather possible.
We sure did hit the best weather in a long time.
The risky thing about taking vacation on the Swedish west coast is the weather. If it’s with you you’ll have an amazing time but if it’s not appealing at all then you might as well stay at home. Of course it was a bliss to see my family again and to spend some quality time with them and Kristýna but it’s funny how the weather decides so many things.
For example, we wouldn’t be traveling with our family boat to the very extent that we did this summer. Swimming and sailing in rain is no fun either. The only thing I’d still do, even if the weather would hit us badly, would be to play around with the jetski. However, I won’t waste time writing pessimistic words about the perfect summer – I’ll let the photos I'll post later speak for themselves.
Kristýna left after three weeks and I stayed another in order to see some friends and just relax. I knew what was coming for me because we’d been planning a trip to Austria and my first visit in real mountains. I’m not much of a hiker nor walker or runner but I do like camping and being in the wild and I must say that Austria totally changed my mind. The nature was ever so beautiful and climbing mountains are really a fun quest to conquer.
It was a battle not only with the mountain but also with my self – I wanted to reach those damn tops. But, I do have an issue with heights and this put extra rocks in my backpack. However, during the last climb I somewhat overlooked the feeling of dizziness and felt actually pretty damn confident. I think it takes practice, just as with anything else.
MedSchool was not really close in my mind at this point and it’d take me another three weeks before I really started to plan in my head for the upcoming second year – and now I’m all of a sudden here, sitting in the park next to campus having lunch and reading biochemistry.
Time flies by...
