Existentialism

 "The consciousness exists like a tree,like a blade of grass. It dozes; it feels bored. Little ephemeral existences populate it like birds in branches. Populate it and it will disappear. Forgotten consciousness,forsaken between these walls,under the gray sky. And this is the meaning of existence: it is a consciousness of being superfluous. It dilutes itself,it scatters itself, and it tries to lose itself on the brown wall,up the lamp post,or over there in the evening mist. But it never forgets itself..".This paragraph from Jean-Paul Sartre's novel 'Nausea' is the best description of existentialism I've come across yet. Here he tries to explain the relationship between the consciousness of the self and the consciousness of our existence. He says "little ephemeral existences populate our consciousness like birds in branches." What he means is that throughout the day we come across and see people and objects,their character and essence,and all these existences,as he calls them,keep us from realizing the consciousness of our own being. That, according to him, gets scattered and diluted between these people and objects. The superfluity of the existence of self remains in us like moisture,like water vapors exist in the atmosphere,but it doesn't let itself condense; it tries to lose itself,but it never forgets itself.