Heidegger and Me

Not the greatest of weekends. Friday evening started poorly and went rapidly downhill. So it wound up being me, Romeo, and Martin Heidegger. Not really... I didn't drink THAT much. I simply pulled out my copy of "Being and Time" and started some skipping around, looking at passages I had underlined before, etc. Nothing intense, but for me Heidegger goes with wine and it was wine I was having at the time. So traveling down the paths of analysis of the words "existence" and "dasein" I came to some clarity that had started in my therapy sessions.

Etymologically, existence signifies "to detach from" or "to emerge from". Now for Martin and the later existentialists this was emerging from nothingness. Human existence is not just "being" but "being there" (Da-sein). We have being within time and have an interconnectedness with "reality". And there it was that I made a connection. I, in essence, have never really existed. Oh sure, perhaps I have bodily form and capable of rational thought, but I have always been part of someone else. My individuality had always been subsumed by my partner. I literally became part of them. Now some people might not think this to be such a bad thing but for me it has been. I was never an individual living an "authentic life". I was always part of someone else. So now this is my chance. First impulses are to try to find someone quick and attach myself to them, but such action would not be good for either of us. Nor do I need to create one small circle of people around me because my "self" would simply be part of that small group. No, now is the time for me to learn to be me. Now is the time to try things (and people) out and see what I like, what I want, what I desire. Only once I find out who "me is" can I again consider trying to move my field of being to a point of overlap with another "significant other field".