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


Saturday 17 November 2012

Why do we "fall" in love

This has been a topic that keeps coming up from time to time and I always delay talking about. Finally I managed to sit down and gather my thoughts: Why do we "fall" in love?


"Falling" probably because if you were 100% aware of it, you would not have fallen in the first place. You would have resisted, thought hard about it and rejected it as silly or even useless.

Isn't it funny that we "fall" in love very early in our youth? Early or mid-twenties mark a time in our life where we are impulsive and prone to "falling" in love, mostly because we do not see clearly or think twice about anything at all.

I fell in love many times as a teenager and in my early twenties. Every time I recall thinking that it will be the last. The end of the world even but it kept happening until I finally gave up and married at 23. Yes, very young but I thought to myself if I waited longer I would probably never get married at all. Because: 1. I would have seen clearly why I should cherish my independence and 2. I would have already built myself a comfortable life that only revolved around me and it would be extremely difficult to let my guards down or allow someone to share what I have built.

So I guess the cruel, yet true, moral of this story is: the older you get, the less chance you have to "fall" in love...