Divided Minds: Notes on Truth

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

This popular Kierkegaard quote illustrates a fundamental paradox of human existence: we search for meaning when we’re living our present moments, yet we can’t actually fathom the meaning to appreciate it until after we’ve lived through them. Real time clarity is never 20/20 but hindsight is. Therefore, one might act upon the values that consistently proved most meaningful after the fact, dedicate themselves faithfully to them, and one might increase meaning during the fact of their present life.