As etherial as the comment above may be, we recognise a certain quality, the !-ness of the world is something we encounter everyday - in a song, a play, a buss ride or in our education. I cannot yet say what the driving force behind this emotion is, but I have found that some fields of study contain it more than others. It may be an element of style - structuring the beauty of existence, or it may just be a whole something polished to a shine. No matter what it is, I think I have found some of the places where one can find it.
1 Philosophy
Philosophy is literally the love of knowledge. It is the beginning, but not the end, of the search for meaningful life. Without the love of the search for beauty, truth and rightness I cannot even begin to tell you where to look for !. If it is in the critical self reflection that Socrates teaches, or in the fantastic nihilism of Nietzsche, philosophy is a portal to the beauty of the mind. Modern philosophy is stern and structural. I love that kind of stuff - but if you're just looking for a buzz I recommend looking to Sartre, or Alain de Botton. When you reach the edge of what you think you know, you'll find that there are whole swaths of wisdom that lies just beyond the boarders of your mind. And just as philosophy was the historical precursor to science - so it can be your personal precursor to a deeper interest in the sciences and the humanities. Both the secrets of biology and history are profound. How does oxygen function to release your body's energy? How did medieval man experience his world? These worlds are filled with !.
2 Design
Designers make us feel good about humanity. Scientists find reality - technicians make reality into useful things - designers shapes the use into something understandable and useful. To learn design is to learn how the manifest peaces of culture hits us and makes us human all over again. And after the knowledge the objects you surround yourself with daily will begin to say ! all over. From the industrial design of Dieter Rams, to the swiss school of graphic design, beautiful ideas are all around us. I'm writing this piece out on a MacBook Air - an aluminium slab with black keys and enough battery power to last ours. That the tools of our culture are both beautiful and functional to us is important. And to learn to see that beauty and use is to learn to live well in a modern world. To men and women of letters - I also recommend a short study of typography. The visual element of writing is more important than one might think.
3 Music
I wanted to say Sound - but what is sound but the incessant feeling of uncontroll we encounter throughout our day. Our brain uses a lot of energy understanding the sounds around us - systematising the rabble of clinks and klongs in buss-doors, walking feet, air port calls and phone noise. Not exactly !. Music, at least at the "beginners level", feeds us sound that is already systematised - so that we can focus on the beauty of it. As you advance to university level studies, music diverges into the impossibly technical and chaotic (or a generic humanities study - incorporating some social science, but that's about writing, not music!). Nerds listen to art music, sophisticated electronic music or jazz (my addiction) - but all these are only the last step before you go out into the chaos of the real world to find the !. The music of the buss, the song of the wind in the trees and the tunes of dialects. We go back to find it again in the music - wether it is Prokofiev's music of the silence of the battlefield, Dave Brubeck's birdsong or best of all; the Musique Concrete that eventually lead to electronic music.
4 Your Body
We all have to have a relationship with our body. It seems strange that we should even say "our body" - why not just say "us"? Is there really a difference? Not many animals, I think, can do this separation. And yet, we get into all kinds of crazy trouble over this - we do things to ourselves, with ourselves and sometimes despite ourselves that affect out bodies. The effect is to create a separation in our mind even more profound than that already inherent in the human psyche. Study your own body - do some exercise, find out what you find pleasurable - find out how fast it goes, what it can take. Get confortable with the way you look, and know your limitations. We are all affected in our mind by what we think we can do - by exploring the capability of your body - you get a better sense of where your true limits are. These will most often be much more far reaching than what you though. I'd actually say that; exercise is to you body what philosophy is to your mind. Beyond knowledge lies pleasure, one of the true ! of mankind. Go for it!
5 Food
Food is one of the few things we are all forced to have a relationship to. It is either that - or die. This is not a bad thing. One can tell a lot about oneself through ones culinary habits. Binge eater? Anorectic? Foodie? Vegetarian? Our relationship to food can be so simple, and so complicated - but what do we really know about it? Knowledge of food isn't necessarily a measure of your control over it. Sometimes knowledge of food comes from a problematic relationship to it - measuring every calorie chasing unattainable thinness, or the superberry that stops ageing. So how should we approach this complicated world? How can we explore the !-ness of food. I think there are two fundamental and unintellectual ways. 1; through hunger and fullness, and 2; through taste. By an exploration of what it means to be full or hungry, what a taste is to you, I believe you can open up a realm of sensation that will enrich your life. If I've understood correctly, neither going hungry for a while, nor being a bit on the chubby side hurts you (in fact, both seem to be healthy alternatives), and both an ascetic lifestyle, and a lush one can accomodate your body's needs. If only there is a little variety, you should be fine. Finally there is a communal side to this. Food is one of the best ways of bringing people together. Movies tend to incapacitate and outright parties often dull ones whits with alcohol or outlouds conversation with music. Food can make the greatest talkers shut up for the two seconds it takes to take a bite, and let the more silent types come with food- related compliments. It's just a good time.
My own relationship with these fields are... active. I study philosophy to in my education, and also use it as a basis for my intellectual life. Poor design choices is one of my favorite pet peeves, and I'm fiercely interested in interaction design. I mostly listen to jazz, or impressionistic music - but have lately gotten interested in natural sound. I also sing jazz in a duo. I don't take regular exercise - but mean to. In fact, I've gone the opposite direction - and now try to move with care and deliberation: A trend I'm afraid has led me closer to "debilitation". As for food, I'm currently trying a new ascetic approach, where I try to find muted but sophisticated tastes - such as the sweetness of bread, the fruitiness of coffee, and the umami and salts of plain cheese. My life isn't complicated, but it is filled with exploration.
