Rebaptize your badness

"The great epochs in our lives are the points when we gain the courage to rebaptize our badness as the best in us."
--Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche is best known as the goth philosopher who promoted nihilism in the late 19th century. In truth, he was a rebel who challenged the traditional Christian doctrines and moral compasses, and is credited, by some, as kicking off existentialism.

He believed in life, creativity, health, and living fully in this world, instead of waiting for a pastoral afterlife. His central theme was "life-affirmation," which, today,would have put him on an author tour faster than you could say "Oprah." See how timeless he is?

Nietzsche was also big into quesitoning any docrine, no matter how popular, that drained one's energy, and bummed out the creative human spirit. His philosophy inspired social and culture leaders, artists, revolutionaries, and writers.

I heard on the radio once that his famous saying, "God is dead," had been abbreviated. What he really said was "God is dead, and it's a damn shame," the second part loosely remembered/adapted by me. This could be completely wrong, but it ripped open a curiosity in a philosopher I thought of as being all Black Sky nihilism.

He wrote his "God is dead" line in a book called The Gay Science. The title was influenced by the poems of Southern French troubardours. Pretty well-rounded guy, don't you think?

If Nietzche were your personal life coach he may just ask you this:
How do you take your badness and rebaptize it into something good?
It just means turning towards it, claiming it, accepting it, seeing what it gave you, and moving on in peace. That's living in THIS life. Wanna play?

Imagine if you didn't have that badness haunting you and instead turned it on its head and loved it for what it is, what it gave you. What if....?

Here's a closing quote from our Herr F.N.
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. " --Friedrich Nietzsche

ps: I love the spirit of the quote but don't agree with "lonely often" part; how often or deeply you want to be lonely is your choice. And, consider the source: Nietzsche gave up his German citizenship and didn't claim Swiss citizenship (where he worked and taught), and travelled around a bit like a gypsy, writing, thinking, and eventually having a breakdown that could have been caused by his medications; depression, or syphillis. Nobody really knows.