[Everyone’s got to be the best and longest-lasting prey against death. It’s over after that. Human nature is not intrinsically fair or unfair.] ~ the skull hollow who fights Kalameet in Dark Souls.

I had chosen my degree on English, with a minor on psychology. Today, on Monday, I had a class on psychology. The lecturer’s name for the class was Evans Altair. It was a middle-aged man. Professor Evans entered, and greeted us. The professor said, “Disclaimer: In psychology, we tend to over-read an individual’s actions. It is not a perfect science. We don’t have a fully correlational psychological theory with respect to modern brain scan analyses.

Before we start, I have a guide based on methodism for you:

As psychologists, we don’t get in tight with people when they suffer. We don’t judge. We don’t get overly emotional with them. It is our job to look from the individual’s perspective. We listen carefully. We offer, if required, advice to the best of our ability in this noble profession. On his own, the individual seeks out happiness. On his own, the individual learns to get stronger. And he learns to rely on support, as much as provide support. To preserve that individual integrity, as well as your integrity as a psychologist, do not overstep. You are not a wingman. You are an advisor.”

[...]

Let us consider the root of things – the root of the belief in causality. And the root for believing in plans.

We should look at the wordings of today, tomorrow and yesterday. What would we call each? We could – and did – start with the present, the future and the past. The present is called the 'present' and not something else. The present is a gift, and our ancestors noticed that each time they survived another era. What is the nature of the gift? What is the label for the gift? When an amnesiac father seeks his child, or seeks to articulate his values to himself, to someone else, what does he seek to accomplish? What does nature itself, left to itself as the wilderness, seek, out there in the mountains, in the forests, in the tundras, and even in the most drastic of temperatures, in frigidity and dryness? Why did man dream of God? Why would the father inspire and teach, as would the mother? What would you take for granted in all these presumptions of actions, as to share, to start, to end, or to even be able to love? That is continuation. We, as humans, may be weak and strong, and perhaps, mostly weak throughout. Yet, we rose and swam through to the future, and we continued.

We lived for the gift, tackling existential dread and existential happiness. We believed some things continued, though we were not entirely sure what. We lived like we did not want something, which held wrong, to subsist and destroy. Some hoped others would not try to dominate the freedom which people created, be it that those others became martyrs, heroes or villains. We do not know how deeply an individual can suffer or how deeply happy an individual can be. That there is such a depth, which repeats itself – that is a continuation one can believe in.

You would want to live your life in such a memorable way, that you do not mind repeating it. Nietzsche called it 'amor fati'. I have little idea what Nietzsche means by 'amor fati'. I have not read it yet. In belief in the continuation of some things, in the eternity of things, you pick up your favorite movie, your favorite song, or your favorite memories. You make a family. Humanity's greatest wish is continuation. It can be continuation of memories, or permanences in religion, or continuation in other things like negotiated standards which become law, or our parables and stories of adventure, which we share even with animals.

Well, what more should continue?

Truth, for one. Truth preserves the gift of continuation. because it provides a dimension of immutability to objects and principles affected by natural decay and disorder over time. People go on quests of immortality and knowledge. People go on quests to discover how the universe can keep regenerating itself and prevent human extinction.

It holds to that every man or woman should be able to have the freedom to continue what he or she holds important. Continuation is an acquisition. It is the acquisition of the strong and the weak, alike, if they can survive. The individual can either continue by object, stored information or by direct transmission of his DNA, along with that of another human, if he is not just cloning himself. Progeny is either an acquisition or a gift. You can consider progeny as sacred, because a baby is innocent and reassuring. Or you can just adopt a child.

The baby, if not your clone, announces the continuation of the marriage you are part of. It announces the baby's shot at starting and continuing life. Then your grandparents see your baby and they may tear up.

In exchange of continuation in one domain, you neglect another domain. An accelerated version of that neglect usually occurs after a death drive. Only the results speak for themselves.

Humans respond to what they can do to potential, what they can do to the unformed wind. Humans respond to the formed music in the wind. If you consider eternity to be an adventure, and that you love adventures, maybe you do love eternity. By holding the music to your head, actions you take to benefit or harm someone else become perceived as more meaningful. The music has become part of your ideal.

Continuation sits between novelty and tradition, depending on how stable and potent that continuation is. For example, an invention like the light bulb changes a lot over the years. Consider the light bulb is extremely important to its inventor. Therefore, consider the baby is more important to the parents, than themselves. The patient is more important to the ones there, than themselves. Something is deemed worthy of sharing, of being started, and of being ended.

Well, you can read books, to learn new knowledge. Perhaps nothing could have made the human heart happier than the presence of another human with whom to share his knowledge, unless he has not trained the adequate hormone receptors for this effect. Time spent alone is time spent learning what is meaningful to you and should therefore continue. I don't take credit for that. That credit goes to author Victor Frankl, who wrote 'Man's Search for Meaning'. I only read a small part of the book.

Continuation happens when you actually have something which can become an ideal, and thereby continue. It's like that book you did not continue, but which someone found interesting and was inspired from. It can be on the level of superstition as well. You may die and someone worships your cranium, which has a low chance of happening, or you die and someone examines your brain itself and keeps it safe and preserved, which also has a low chance of happening, unless you are Albert Einstein.

Having your cranium or brain stolen from you might be problematic. Having your baby or project stolen from you might also suck, particularly if you don't want the baby to die, or you know the baby can grow up and achieve his thing, even of the rough kind.

The parents are therefore happy with the baby. The master is happy with the disciple. His standards progress from here. He gets another chance to be meaningful and therefore idealist or cutthroat.

When you wake up every day, and that you take your breath, it is time for you yourself to find your purpose for the day, for the week, and eventually, for the time you live. You go to work, and you strive to be better. Occasionally, you may draw from past ideals to create a future.

Continuation is like anything you will witness in the universe, as well as here itself, in this room, of this campus, be it the living, or the non-living. It is the stars, birthing, shining, weathering, traveling across the great abyss of eternity, and meeting their demise, to start anew. It is the natural order of the universe.

Continuation is about holding yourself accountable. Continuation is about choice, between one domain and the other. Then, the sun sets. Then, dawn comes again.

We are time-bound beings.

Every civilization – every 'family' – wants to continue. Not doing so means death.

We go from one adventure to the next. We learn to fish two fishes from the river in a single day, instead of one fish. We partake in another's art, and another's science. This much is just a listing of life's quest experiences.

If there is little continuation, as in meaningful continuation, your brain depresses, and you feel purposeless. If there is continuation, you become grateful and you become entitled. You develop more expectations. You become pompous, and joyful. You have selected yourself, or you have been selected.

You keep going. Maybe you even open a dojo to transfer your mastery. You pass on your artwork to someone eligible or to someone who is promising. And then you die.

That's the idea of causality, and the way it is rooted in us, and in our motives and beliefs. Causality is the foundation of religion and of global narratives. Because we are time-bound creatures who compete for resources and said resources can be used to allow for ideals to be recreated, or to be repeated.

The qualia and flow state someone experienced is recreated, just like the passage of seasons. And you have the choice to change that. Where you were the symbol of continuation, you become a bearer of continuation.