what 'throwness' can teach us

To my knowledge, Heidegger coined the idea of throwness; that is, a state of being in which we become completely absorbed in the world, in such a way that all 'personal' possibilities disappear. We are born into a world -not- of our own making, yet we are permitted discovery of this crucial fact; and by discovering it, we can shape our orientation to the world, i.e. see throwness for what it is so as to emerge from it, and free ourselves from it.

To illustrate my point I will use an everyday example: A family sits around the television watching football playoffs. It's the final game of the year, and they've watched nearly every game, followed most newspaper stories involving players in the league, and talked about these things with like-minded friends and family. Towards the end of the game (nobody in the room has an allegiance to either of the teams, yet they sit watching the game, loyal to their sport) the father says "I'm just disappointed the season's over." Everybody agrees. That night, each member of the family goes to sleep deflated, nostalgic for what a great season it was. Two or three days will have to pass before anyone can even do yard work, or put their minds to anything, without feeling a tinge of sadness that there is no more football to be watched.

What can this example teach us?

A hole has been left in the world of the football family. They have relied on it to fill their lives and to take their minds off their everyday concerns (financial, political). When the season ends, only memories remain, and of course highlights on the television that bring the sport back to life momentarily. As a result, the hole needs to be filled, not unlike the hole that requires filling after a family member dies. The hole is smaller and will therefore be filled faster, but it is a hole nonetheless, and filling it takes time and energy, which further pushes them from their existential concerns. Of course, we are never without concern--so long as we exist, we project ourselves toward things (even when we find ourselves helpless or directionless, like the family after the season ends, we still press on through time towards something....death to be exact.)

But in this example, which is a case of becoming overly wrapped up in something that is not of your own making (this is an idea that will have to be fleshed out) we are able to detect how exactly it is that we are free--how we can, as Heidegger says, "choose ourselves and win ourselves."

It is hard to ignore the affirmative nature of this declaration. That is, I am tempted to equate Heidegger's declaration here to one we might hear from the keynote speaker at a high school graduation; something like "you have to find yourself in the world," or "don't be afraid to be yourself," etc. But to equate his message to these tired, commonplace suggestions would be to miss the point entirely (and unfortunately.)

Because Heidegger is talking on a more fundamental level, an ontological one. We are existents--our essence, if we can be said to have one at all, is to exist. To live and to die. But talking about it in these terms often covers over our essence. These terms are what Heidegger calls "present-at-hand," which I think is