Will to Meaning

We have come to see how great is the unexplored, and many lifetimes will not bring us to the end of our quest. We alone, of the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it. Some day, we shall stop and build a house, when we shall have gone far enough. But we do not have to hasten. The days before us are without end, like the forest.
The adventures first… explanations take such a dreadful time.

I had my artist draw up a design based off the above MSPainting:

Part one of three of the Wills to Life:

Will to Meaning:

O worm, of you, I am jealous. Of all my cares, my troubles, my goals, my inhibitions, my feelings, and thoughts; you have no complication. Everything I want to be. A simple, content, focused entity just doing it all because he lives. No other motivation. No other reason. Not even reason to be sociable, to even see more than to determine darkness from light. Lacking a brain. This is the animal could I be I would be. The self mobile creature, most different from human, for these reasons desirable.

But what plight, what misery! To be, and not of consequence! If you have no reason for cares, certainly there is no one has cares of you. What does it matter to another --or to you for that matter-- if you can move, when you have noplace to go to? If you can self-reproduce, you're originally unimpressive. Another clone. Couldn't be bothered if you were to be demolished. Won't miss you, never reminisce of you, not interesting enough to mention, even to put forth thought upon. And certainly never be sought out specifically, save as for bait, used once, as bribery for another. Disposable. O worm, whoever doesn't pity you has forgotten quickly, your forgettable attendance.

O brain, for you, I am eternally thankful! We have discovered so much together! You make me human, and who I am. For all the joy, the laughter, the excitement, the beauty, I've you to thank. Elation and euphoria are your gift to me. I've known you for all my life, and there's no one who will ever be closer. We know things of each other that no one else can ever know, and sometimes I'm sure you know me better than myself. I owe it all to you. You give me motivation; you give me reason. Because of you I can experience the world! I can expect you'll be there for me every day. I am free to roam and meet others to discuss our experiences. I am free to relax and enjoy just being with you. We can decide together.

But there are times we don't agree. I can't stand it when we're suddenly faced with these ugly dilemmas. You show me all the tragedy in the world, and every irritating obstacle in my path. You're inescapably present. Even when I'm sleeping, you discuss what you desire. When it suits you I become unreasonably fearful in my sleep. Without you, I'd never be afraid. Anger, depression, longing, tiredness, boredom, apprehension, and paranoia are your weapons against me. O brain, how I wish I could forget you.

I am here to discover and examine paradoxes. Then make simple art out of them. Then mark them on my body. Then just tell people that I'm a big Pink Floyd fan to avoid an eight hour long conversation struck up by small talk.

But it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high, as you can see.
No matter how he tried he could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.

That which nourishes me destroys me. As the worm eats through the brain, all because it happens to be in its path... does it inherit some profound insight? And the brain certainly couldn't go on, had there not been countless worms disposing of the countless brains that came before it and perished, cluttering the hillsides. Unfortunately for the brain though, this time, the worm came prematurely, and, if the worm isn't gaining any knowledge after all, everything the brain had stood for is gone, lost, if only tainted. If of course indeed it wasn't all an illusion to begin with. But what does the worm care? At least it stands a chance of putting the poor damned brain out of its misery.

"logos" refers to the Greek word for meaning. Rather than power or pleasure, Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, or Will to Meaning, is founded upon the belief that it is the striving to find a meaning in one's life that is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in humans.

So you

thought you

might like to

go to the show.

Part two and three next.

Will to Power Tattoo Sketch

Part two of three of the Wills to Life.

Tattooed over the heart on my upper left chest, pretty far left. First ink in color.

This design is in reference to my heritage and family (blood running through the heart, and my having the last name Hart), especially my sister (also having a heart logo tattoo), as well as to the obvious emotional underpinnings of its title, in reference to Human Motivation.

The shaky, upward moving graph line within is not only representative of a single heartbeat, depicting the wonderment of life, but with an upward trending allusion to Human Evolution, Human Experience, and Human Understanding. The shape created by a graphed heartbeat is fractal in nature, another theme which runs across my tattoos.

"macht" refers to Friedrich Nietzsche's Wille zur Macht or Will to Power, suggesting that achievement, ambition, dominance, and the striving to reach the highest possible position or class in life is the most valuable goal for man.

Will to Pleasure: Human Wisdom Design

This design refers first to the difference between information and meaning, but also heavily to harmony, beauty, balance, symmetry, freedom boundary and limitation, efficiency, logic and proportion, pleasure, responsibility, circumstance, purpose, importance, finity and infinity, science, causality, casualty, birth, identity, perfection and imperfection, wonderment, and the foundation of life in the Universe. It's a reference to Human Wisdom amidst ultimate uncertainty.

The concept is part three of the Wills to Life, and is tattooed high on my left bicep.

Will to Pleasure:

Incorporated symbols:

♀ Venus

• the shape itself suggests the straight line, the logical efficient path that lightning should take to the surface of the curved Earth from a given point (at the cross)
• also represents the element copper, the most common heat and electricity conducing element
• associated with the principles of harmony, beauty, balance, the feelings and affections, and the urge to sympathize and unite with others
• involved with the desire for pleasure, sensuality, personal possessions, comfort and ease
• governs romantic relations, marriage and business partnerships, sex, the arts, fashion and social life
• associated with the branching structure of veins, also apparent in trees: the fractal nature of life

♎ Libra

• associated with balance, incidentally ruled by Venus in astrology
• shows one straight path and one path curving in the center, in reference to the shortest path not always being the most effecient, in regards to obstacles and circumstance

Ω Omega

• the "Great O," abstractly representing pleasure and wisdom
• refers to the density of the Universe
• the end, or time of death
• electrical resistance, or ohms
• Chaitlin's Constant in computer science, informally representing the probability that a randomly chosen program will halt, generally suggesting infinite possibilities represented as one end result, and suggesting random or incomprehensible bits of information, or guided chaos

η Eta

• represents efficiency, especially in thermodynamics and electronics
• appears probably most commonly in electrical contexts where the transistor is used as a temperature sensing device, e.g. the thermal "diode" transistor that is embedded within a computer's microprocessor (which processes information at increasingly efficient speeds)
• shows that efficiency is not only important, if not crucial, but generally occurs in perfect harmony within natural settings, though not necessarily following logic

i

• symbol for information (which has no inherent meaning)
• implies denotation, or information as opposed to meaning

@

• often implies a rate, relationship, or location: a specificity
• implies connotation, or meaning as opposed to information

299,792,458

• c, or the speed of light in a vacuum (without obstacles), in meters per second
• a constant, fixed exactly by official definition of the meter
• a finite value which connects time and space
• a universal speed limit for physical bodies and forces including information, exceeding which would destroy the relationship of cause and effect
• meaningless information can breach this speed limit, instantly creating a remote signal with which nothing can be discerned other than the event that created it occurred

(a human fetus)

• representing life; the connotations of life, that the chaotic Universe is in perfect harmony to harbour life on Earth
• man's quest for information and understanding
• the responsibilities that man has in gaining this wisdom (the omega in the symbol is also representative of a burden riding on his back)
• advancement of informational technology
• man's path in evolution

(a key)

• symbolic for the gained power of opening and closing
• represents knowledge, mystery, curiosity, discovery, identity, belonging, individuality, guardianship, security, guidance, and initiation
• also implies imperfection; copying or cloning; and male/female interaction and sex/impregnation, the initiation and continuation of life

(hedon)

• allusion to Sigmond Freud's Pleasure Principle, or Will to Pleasure
• hedonism is a philosophy and ethical structure based on the thought that the feeling of pleasure is the only intrinsic good, suggesting that one will do whatever it takes for nothing other than pleasure's sake