Finding Fulfilment

You may have noticed a title in the Books I'm Reading section called The Acting Person. Back in 1999 I read a biography of Pope John Paul II which mentioned it, which he had written in the 1950s. I found a translation on the internet and have been reading it slowly since last year.

The other day I came across an idea that is quite radical. He writes that human fulfillment is realized when a person acts authentically:

To fulfill oneself means to actualize, and in a way to bring to the proper fullness, that structure in man which is characteristic for him because of his personality and also because of his being somebody and not merely something; it is the structure of self-governance and self-possession.

It is radical for me, because I tended to think that "fulfillment" was about doing particular things that bring one outside one's everyday world, like skydiving, mountain climbing, anything exciting or extraordinary. Anything other than, say, going to work, cleaning the house, shopping for groceries, etc.

He goes on to say that authentic acts have not only an external effect (I cleaned the house, and now it is clean), but an internal one as well (I cleaned the house and was satisfied with my work; I know it is a job well-done). While the external effect is transitory, the internal effect is lasting. When one acts authentically, one is strengthened and validated in one's personhood.

This was interesting to me, because, in addition to seeing "fulfillment" as something extraordinary, I thought that I could be validated externally only, as in being recognized for a job well-done; if someone didn't notice it, it didn't happen.

I've had intuitions of this for a long time - nice to see that I wasn't totally out to lunch!

Surprise from Keats...

A few weeks ago I browsed through The Norton Poetry Anthology (Fourth Edition) and stumbled across a poem that contained my theme:

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
John Keats

Much have I traveled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled in his demesne,
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then I felt like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific - and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise -
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.