On a side note, I realize the passage could be interpreted as being 'oh so feminist/sjw' or whatsoever and so I would like to make these point(s) clear, that: 1.) I am very much in favor of feminism, yes, although I do not have yet the audacity to call myself one and 2.) A female philosopher (as the interviewer insists, although Arendt wasn't especially pleased of this term) was rare at the time and the interviewer was particularly keen on comparing her to famous/influential philosophers in the male dominated world of (well, if not anything) philosophy, in which she responded as the above. I feel like she didn't intend the words for the binary of male female but rather, to the values that society attribute as masculine/feminine therefore applying to all genders. Should you wish to know more, refer to the full interview here or read the replies on this tweet here.
Am still in the process of truly (if ever) understanding in order to not misinterpret the passage as means of blind justification, but in the coming, impending dusk of 2017, I find it quite comforting to know that maybe, how good your year is, isn't only measured by how many lives you've influenced—in a good way, or how much you've suffered or helped or done anything for other people. Its also what you've done or thought for yourself, things people wouldn't have the ability to fathom, but you do. To just be and attempting to understand yourself (and then, others), is enough.
So I guess here's to striving to understand more in the coming year: the things we will have the privilege of understanding, things we do not yet understand, things we will never understand, and the beauty of it all. Godspeed.
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(I was given several paragraphs as a gift for my birthday last year and some of them struck out every now and then ['we live too much in the minds of others...'] and I've just found out recently that the paragraph belonged to this school of life video which is also a wonderful remedy against angst. Also here's a picture of a cat.)
