Cares and the Carefree

You can accumulate houses and mansions and millions of dollars, but the more things you have, the more cares you have. It is no coincidence that the most carefree people are those poorest in material wealth.

However, one of the essential characteristics of the human experience is concern. One cannot live without having a stake in the world. You cannot take a stand without also taking on an interest in the goings-on of the world. To be is to be in a world, and to be in is to be involved, interested and concerned. By this reasoning, we must conclude that it is logically impossible to be "without a care in the world".

So what are we to make of those who really are without a care in the world? Is this line of reasoning to be discarded, since it seems to contradict observed phenomena? Or are the carefree in some way still involved in the goings-on of the world?

Simply because one is not materially invested in the world does not mean that one is absolutely "uninvolved". The ways in which man is bound up with the world are manifold. Some of us are bound up in personal relationships, and are therefore not entirely without care. But what about those who have truly nothing? Let us imagine a perfect ascetic - a man who has given up all possessions and all involvement in human affairs. What becomes of him? Is he free - or has he become a nothingness?

Being torn away from the particular, he surrenders to the universal. He does not care to own a thing; instead he takes pleasure in taking everything in. He does not care to bind himself to people - instead he embraces all humanity. In this way, we may reaffirm that being in the world, for human beings, necessarily entails involvement. In this way, we present the cares of the carefree. And by observing the example of the truly carefree, we may follow suit, likewise freeing ourselves from our worldly concerns and risking nothingness.

You know already that I admire this man that I have mentioned, this carefree globetrotter, this hopeless vagabond. And I know already that you envy him too. He is living the life that we are to live, if we dare. Let us risk nothingness that we may regain ourselves and with it all the world. Let us forget sensibility and remember sweet honeydew hope and naiveté. Let us forget that there is anything to lose.

Let us dare to live.