Welcome

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. Everything has been figured out, except how to live. One always dies too soon or too late. And yet, life is there, finished. The line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life. There is only one day left, always starting over. It is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk. We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are, that is the fact. When you live alone you no longer know what it is to tell a story: the plausible disappears at the same time as the friends. You let events flow by too.Suddenly you see people appear who speak and then go away; you plunge into stories of which you can't make head or tail. You'd make a terrible witness. It is true that people who live in society have learned how to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. Luckily, I only have a few...

Dr Shaw is a lecturer in Further Education at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk. She also offers philosophy courses at the School of Continuing Education, Lifelong learning, at the University of Liverpool. In 2015, she has completed her Doctorate in philosophy with a focus on existentialism, the equilibrium doctrine and narrative. She has worked as a teacher of English and Comparative literature and Philosophy at The American University in Cairo, Egypt where she also obtained her BA (Hons). Dr Shaw has an MA in Philosophy and Literature from the University of East Anglia where she also taught on a number of humanities subjects. Whilst working in North Wales in Further education, she gained a PGCE aimed at teaching in FE and HE sectors. Dr Shaw moved to Liverpool in 2010 where she now resides.

Interests: Existentialism, Narrative, Comparative Literature, Feminist Thought, Public Speaking, Arab Existentialism, Philosophy of Education, Art, Music, Film and Theatre, Greek Mythology, Existential counsellor and psychotherapist.

https://liverpool.academia.edu/ShereenHamedShaw


Sunday 7 November 2010

Lose yourself in love...

Love...

is the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment...
is not about oneself, it is about the other. The way they talk, smile, walk, and go about in life...
is loving those who deserve it.
is the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition...

Love the other as you would like to be loved yourself... Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all...

I have always wondered how a mix of emotions can be called love... What makes "love" so important to us? Why is it important? Why are those who never find it, are in such distress? Can love be right in front of our eyes and we can't see you? Can love be easily found? Many philosophers have talked about love as either an emotion that makes us weak, faint, or that which makes us stronger...whichever way we see it, love is a necessary state that we value enough to spend all our lives looking for it. Whether we admit it or not, it seems that life has taught us that love does not mean gazing at each other but looking outward together in the same direction...People say that a woman has to be with a bad man to appreciate the good one, maybe that is true, but may not always be the case. A good heart finds its way, it is capable of sensing another good heart. One that believes that love has to be made, it does not create itself, it needs to be made, remade, and made new all the time. Unfortunately, it is true that love can be made in years and destroyed in minutes...