SSHM ch.2 Freedom and Life
Natalie Marler-Thomas
Section #10
Introduction
In the chapter of Freedom and Life, Kaag talked about James’s depression and his journey with his recovery. It talks about the people and the things that saved William James’s life. Those things are his “second wind,” Renouvier, free will, and Alice Gibbens. It does talk about his brother and how nature impacted him as well. There are a lot of other things that happened to him on his journey, but these are the ones that are highlighted in chapter two. Kaag also introduces the soul being “twice born” and how that affected James. Overall, Kaag summarized a portion of James’s life and his recovery from depression.
Suffering and Second Wind
First, I would like to start with a quote from James, “If one looks carefully, suffering is not the exception but the rule.” Suffering is something everyone will experience, and I do not believe it is possible to live without it. James at this time in his life believed we were fated, those sick souls are doomed to suffering and only look at despair, but the healthy-minded tend to overlook it. This was a low point of his life and he only saw the suffering in his own life and his life was fated to suffer. James then goes on to say, "To endure the horror of existence, the sick soul must be ‘twice born,’ or reborn in order to love, or at least bear, the act of living.” To be “twice born” is a radical transformation or a conversion experience. Imagine a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.
This is what William James thought being “twice born” meant. You either decide to let the suffering take over or you get your second wind. I tried to think personally in my own life if I have experienced a second wind or being “twice born”. I believe I have, and it is something that changes the trajectory of your life. I never had a word to put to the experience and I believe some of us have also experienced this second chance of living. I feel like now in our society most people are not able to reach their first wind and do not have the life-changing second wind. I am not sure if I believe that everyone needs to experience a second wind to have a fulfilling life.
The second wind cannot happen without suffering. You experience the second wind when you decide between staying at rock bottom or choosing to go up. Kaag says it is hard to describe the second wind and it is something you will ever only truly understand when you experience it. In my own words, a second wind is when you are faced with something that seems impossible or where your fate is completely sealed, but you find the strength to overcome it. In the book, they talk about one specific example, and it is about John Muir, an American naturalist. He was climbing the side of a mountain on a hike, and he was hanging on the edge tired and close to giving up. He did not give up, suddenly, he had a second wind and it helped him get all the way to the top. However, James says that most people never reach their first wind, and they do not even know they have a second wind. William James experienced his reborn experience in the spring of 1870 after reading Renouvier’s second Essais.
Free Will and Recovery is not Linear
“My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will,” William James declared after reading Renouvier’s work.
I wanted to share this comic because I believe this is how William James felt until he read about Renouvier talking about free will. He felt he was a domino destined to fall until he decided he had free will and moved out of the way. This was James’s second wind was believing in free will because he felt like before he was destined for suffering. Renouiver was an against the grain man and he firmly believed in free will. He did not go to school and today would be considered an uneducated man. However, I believe he was a highly intelligent man, and he did have a part in saving William James’s life. I do not want to be redundant about what he felt, but this sent James into a head spin. He could not believe it took him this long to figure this out and he began to think this newly founded happiness was a delusion. A quote from James, “That is the danger of being born twice born: there is always the prospect of having to die all over again.”
Recovery is not linear. You do not always just become increasingly happier, sometimes we still have low points.
This graph is just here to help visualize that progress with these things is not always linear and it is normal to have these very low points. These thoughts made him think that he was worse than before because he thought he was truly happy. James then talks about how a change in our thinking is not a small event, but it changes our whole being and how we view life. He did, however, after having some time with his thoughts, he decided that he does believe in free will. As James says, “the whole man within us,” changes and he did. This later helped James fall in love with his wife, Alice Gibbens.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Kaag helped us understand how James recovered from his depression and his journey with free will. He showed us all the steps James took to be the man he became. My thoughts from this chapter are that James is very relatable and very human. He has been through things that I feel like many people can understand and he learned and grew from it. James taught me that life is life, it is not amazing, but it is worth living. You will experience horrible things, but you will also experience sensational things. I ended this blog post with a quote from William James that I think you should take away from this chapter and a link to someone's personal experience with a second wind.
“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create fact.”
-William James
https://fashionedforjoy.com/2020/09/20/a-second-wind/
Nice butterflies, dominoes, etc.
ReplyDelete"it [life] is not amazing"-- It's not?!
You need to sprinkle in a few embedded links, including the one at the end (the first time you mention "second wind"). And you could link "twice-born" to WJ's discussion of the healthy-mindedness in Varieties of Religious Experience: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/621/pg621-images.html