Living in a material world

The only way I can interpret that phrase is she meant that we have no choices and are sort of doomed to live in a world where everything is predetermined. Wouldn't that be hell for an existentialist?

My education has been very different from Mom's, with more formal study of philophy. That doesn't make it better, only different.

Anyway, I said something about any problems being caused by the house being too dark. That much I know is true. I pointed out a wall that needs to be knocked down and that there aren't enough windows on the sides of the house. (It's a rowhouse, so duh.)

I really do feel better when I am not inside the house. It is too dark in here, and too cluttered with I don't know what. There's a mishmash of furniture and I still don't have the energy to fix it, which is where the question of responsibility comes in, which leads me back to existentialism.

I think that right now the point is to find one's way out from under the first layer, then worry about subsequent layers. In other words, if I really thought that this life was an existential hell, I'd use a plan to get myself out of it.

The rest is just guesswork.

before - after