Should we feel inadequate when we fail to be healthy, balanced, and
well-adjusted? Is it realistic or even desirable to strive for such an
existential equilibrium? Condemning our current cultural obsession with
cheerfulness and "positive thinking," Mari Ruti calls for a resurrection
of character that honors our more eccentric frequencies and argues that
sometimes a tormented and anxiety-ridden life can also be rewarding.
Ruti critiques the search for personal meaning and pragmatic attempts to
normalize human beings' unruly and idiosyncratic natures. Exposing the
tragic banality of a happy life commonly lived, she instead emphasizes
the advantages of a lopsided life rich in passion and fortitude. She
also shows what matters is not our ability to evade existential
uncertainty but our courage to meet adversity in such a way that we do
not become irrevocably broken.
We are in danger of losing the capacity to cope with complexity,
ambiguity, melancholia, disorientation, and disappointment, Ruti warns,
leaving us feeling less "real" and less connected and unable to process
a full range of emotions. Heeding the call of our character means
acknowledging the marginalized, chaotic aspects of our being, and it is
precisely these creative qualities that make us inimitable and
irreplaceable.