De Saussure

De Saussure. They were introducing a new Executive Director and the familiarity of the name struck me. We went through the motions of introducing a new executive. In the conference call, while the invisible handshakes were extended, I was hung up on the bell his last name rang. Ferdinand De Saussure: father of semiotics, or structural linguistics (I'm going to have Google). How often was this name mentioned in my readings in post-structuralism.

De Saussure. The name threw my mind spinning in a whirlwind of philosophical wanderlust. What else have I forgotten? What can I still remember? How did I corrupt my little knowledge of Philosophy and applied it to my daily functions of my supposedly quiet and boring but truly stressful and unfulfilling job?

There must be a valid parallelism and a sensible coherence between Philosophy and Business Process Outsourcing in the 21st century. But I'm obviously just getting fancy and humoring myself. Both the Continental and Analytical Philosophers must be shaking in their graves.

In truth, my comparisons aren't accurate depictions and would actually be more like scrambled versions of real philosophy. In another time of my life I would have said, 'I should have been a librarian, or I should have been a scholar or philosophy professor.' It's dawned on me, with a less dreamy maturity, that in order to make living possible I have to chase some numbers instead of actually chasing a dream. It would have been useless to regret and sulk.

I did not meet some of the expectations I set earlier in life, but I surprised myself with so many others I didn't even imagine achieving. Being a father and husband, along with the discovery of a humble, blissful selflessness is probably my profoundest accomplishment in life. And maybe later on, I'll keep chasing those other dreams. I couldn't lose in this solution. I could still be all that one day, while I won't mind if I won't be.

I recently came across an article in The Atlantic, "Why hundreds of Harvard students are studying ancient philosophy."

I'd like to think that my choices are a result of foundations grounded in philosophy along with what I continue to learn now. Along with being a father and husband, I imagine that this not a regretful but a joyful wisdom. It is not with the grand narratives or most pompous events, but with the little incidents do we understand ourselves and 'turn the world with the palm of our hands.