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We stand on a metaphorical pier of an open sea of creative possibilities. I find value in Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, because he presents an life-affirming worldview attitude of casting a canopy of joy over reality and choosing to laugh rather than despair, and enjoy the luminous sky and bright sun on our skin. The central character Zarathustra says, "over cloud and day and night, did I spread out laughter like a colored canopy." I really like this quote as it signifies Nietzsche's ideal of a joyful and expansive attitude rather than a sky cast canopy of morose piety denying life as depraved or bad and our biology as inherently sinful. Such imagery represents for me a powerful, uninhibited, expression of life as it is.
As Nietzsche puts it in several places of his work, once the dust has settled from the deconstruction of the theocratic-God-belief, there emerges a new realm of possibility. The expanse is open before us, like standing at a pier before an open sea. For me, going beyond the notion of sin and seeking sainthood, is opening up to new ideas and ways of living: forming genuine friendships that aren't ready to fall apart the minute you express doubts in a creed or articles of faith. Its about forming real friendships that stand the test of time. Where there is joy and laughter rather than fake piety.
I often reference Nietzsche because despite my disagreeing with and rejecting some of his ideas, I resonate with his main aim of balancing skepticism and mystic-like artistry. Ayn Rand called him a mystic as if to condemn him. But this is the part of Nietzsche's philosophy that most appeals to me. I believe that the key to appreciating Nietzsche and taking from him what is useful and discarding what is problematic, is understanding that the core of his philosophy is an attempt to overcome depressive passive-nihilism and embrace reality as it is in a spirit of optimistic joy and laughter and personal meaning-making creativity. For more details, I highly recommend the book Joy and Laughter in Nietzsche’s Philosophy: Alternative Liberatory Politics, Edited by Paul E. Kirkland.
This emphasis on saying yes to this world of the flesh and chaos, and within such yin-yang dynamics of becoming, experiencing more joy and laughter, is at the heart of his life philosophy. For example, here is an excerpt from Quotes & Commentary #28: Nietzsche by Roy Lotz:
I would believe only in a god who could dance. — Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra.
This is one of Nietzsche’s most famous quotes. Like a catchy tune, it sticks effortlessly in the memory after one hearing. Perhaps this is only because it conjures up such a silly image. I imagine the God of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, bearded and robed, skipping and dancing from cloud to cloud, filling heaven with capricious laughter.
But why is this image so silly? Why was Michelangelo, along with so many others, inclined to picture God as solemn, grave, and frowning? Why is a dancing deity such a paradox?
A true god would have no need to be serious and severe; those values are for stern parents, Sunday-school preachers, and ruler-snapping teachers. I know this from my own teaching experience: Putting on a strict, frowning, joyless countenance is a desperate measure. Teachers do it in order to reduce their yapping, fidgeting, giggling, scatterbrained kids into hushed, intimidated, obedient students. But would a god need to resort to such scare-tactics?
This observation is part of Nietzsche’s aim, to resuscitate the Dionysian in European life. By Dionysian, Nietzsche meant the joys of passion, disorder, chaos, and of creative destruction. The Dionysian man identifies with the stormy waves smashing the shore, with the lion tearing into its prey. He is intoxicated by earthly life; every sensation is a joy, every step is a frolic.
This is quite obviously in stark contrast with the Platonic ideal of a philosopher: always calm and composed, scorning the pleasures of the body, worshiping logical order and truth. A true Platonist would never dance. Christianity largely adopted this Platonic idea, which found ultimate expression in the monastic life—a life of routine, celibacy, constant prayer, scant diet, and self-mortification—a life that rejects earthly joys.
Nietzsche’s "joyful science" can thus act as a counteractive remedy for soul crushing religious piety and perfectionism; as a kind of cure for those to whom seeking sainthood is all too often a life-denying, self-hating, almost self-flagellating exercise in self-shaming, and crazy making self-delusion. So that one can grow into their true self beyond dogma and instead embrace reality as it is and one's natural manhood or womanhood with joyful exuberance!
Consider the philosophical energy of these quotes from Nietzsche on joy, dance and laughter, from his "holy book," Thus Spoke Zarathustra:
This crown to crown the laughing man, this rose-wreath crown: I myself have set this crown upon my head, I myself have pronounced my laughter holy.
....
I would only believe in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn: it was the spirit of gravity—through him all things fall. Not by wrath does one kill but by laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!
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And let that day be lost to us on which we did not dance once! And let that wisdom be false to us that brought no laughter with it!
(Source)
In Christian scripture there is not this emphasis on joy and laughter here and now. I like this post-priestly, life-affirming energy and vitality!
From Post-Sainthood to Pro-Creatorhood: Creating my own Character and Persona beyond Sainthood
Part of post-sainthood or moving beyond the Pauline ideal, is being pro-creatorhood, which is a term I came up with to describe creating your own worldview, ethical code, and lifestyle; while giving style to your character and becoming your real authentic self by first taking off the dogma-googles and religious personae, and instead beginning to see the world through your own eyes for the first time.
A key component of pro-creatorhood is bringing forth from within your truest most authentic self and identity by moving away from trying to mold yourself into the mirror image of a religious mask; and instead becoming an existential artist in the realm of self-creation and becoming your true self.
I'm influenced heavily by Nietzsche in this regard and his emphasis on giving style to your character and becoming who you are (not who they want to mold you into in their image). You cannot become who you truly are if you're constantly molding yourself into someone else's created persona, an often pretend pious persona, made in the image of the apostle Paul's personality. You're true authentic personality is not going to fully come through if you are conforming to someone else's personality and molding yourself into a fake persona based on a conformist and indoctrinated pious performance.
So the opposite of post-Pauline-sainthood is for me pro-creatorhood: the creation of your real authentic self, becoming the creative artist of your own life and story. Choosing to live a life of joy and creativity rather than a life of holy conformity, religious fear and blind obedience.
Pro-creatorhood means for me seeing yourself as not an absorber of Pauline scripture, but being a self-rolling wheel, a self-creating exuberant star-like being of explosive potentiality. It is the recognition that you are an individual and a unique self, with your own personality and genetics and capacity for greatness in your own sphere of potentiality.
Pro-creatorhood means not memorizing scripture verses and molding yourself into the image of Paul's monastic ideal, but instead being more spontaneous and creative in the pursuit of creating your own lifestyle and bringing out your true authentic self and real personality.
It means starting random conversations with spontaneous creativity without some unconscious religious agenda, and instead always flowing to the rhythm of reality rather conforming to Pauline dogma. Living with genuine aliveness and curiosity rather than acting like a pre-programmed robot following a scripture-made script and fitting your demeanor and communication into a performative mold of a Pauline saint. It means making a choice to free yourself from the self-enslaving mold of sainthood by choosing the freedom of creatorhood.
Nietzsche told a friend that he wrote his own version of a "holy book" with his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which declares laughter holy. As the article Nietzsche’s holy jest by Nicholas E Low puts it, "laughter itself represents the heart of Nietzsche’s new revelation of ‘holiness,’ one that challenges regnant [dominant] expressions of religion and piety while resisting serious, doctrinal formulation." Reading Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, and laughing during several sections of an audiobook version, it occurred to me just how much actual humor and laughter is missing from the "holy Bible" (especially the New Testament). For while Zarathustra made me laugh out loud several times, reading the Pauline scriptures has not make me laugh once.
It's as if to put the word holy before the Bible is signifying that being holy, or saintly, is to lack a sense of humor. Just think about it, why are most highly religious comedians so terrible and unpopular for the most part? Sure someone's going to mention an exception to this rule, but the reason is obvious.
So part of post-sainthood and pro-creatorhood for me today is continually bringing forth my true authentic self, untangled from the theological barbwire and soul crushing ideas of Pauline dogmatism; and instead living uncaged as a free spirit with joy and creativity.
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