When a man [woman] chooses himself [or herself],
he chooses for all men.
Of all the actions a man may take in order to create himself as he wills to be,
there is not one which is not creative,
of an image of man such as he believes he ought to be.
Existence precedes essence.
We will to exist, as we fashion our image.
That image is valid for all
and for the entire epoch in which we find ourselves.

My will, is my will for everyone,
and my action is, in consequence,
a commitment on behalf of all mankind.

                            ***

Feelings are formed by deeds that one does.
Therefore I cannot consult feelings
as a guide to action.
There is no internal authentic impulse to action.
Nor is there some ethic, some formulae enabling me to act.

There is no reality except in action.
Man is nothing else but what he proposes.
He exists only as he recognizes himself.
He is nothing else but the sum of his [her] actions.

-excerpt Ambiguity and Freedom by Simone de Beauvoir

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Today, Saturday promises to be one of those late summer, early fall days that are supremely pleasant to be out and about, in proximity to Nature on the cusp of the great change initiated by the tilt in the earth’s axis, the shortening of days, and the coming splendor of fall colors.  A singular question remains to be answered today.  What are to be my actions, my responses to the words of others, to my own set of circumstances?

Here are several additional provocative quotations, words subversive of our typical ways of thinking, of our distracted living…  What if my every action is a tacit endorsement of what humanity ought to become, of a standard of aspiration for all of us?  And your every action too!  What if you and I were to believe that human beings are not finished, but subject to achieving excellence-of-being as homo sapiens?

And as for the matter of feelings, of emotional states – do we not always reverse, transpose, give priority to feelings?  How many times have you heard a reporter inquire of their athlete interviewee, “How did winning make you feel…   The question is almost always the same no matter the subject under discussion, the event being reported.  How did…make you feel?

These words quoted from de Beauvoir assert that action is prior to feeling, actions define the content of our emotions.  So, forget about your feelings, feelings are unimportant as they follow the deed.

Deeds are the point.  Always.