Being and Somethingness

In a wonderful book, On Becoming Fearless in Love, Work and Life, Arianna Huffington subtitles a section "Being and Somethingness." She writes:

"When we tap into the truth that we are spiritual as well as material beings, we are then able to distinguish between our transient day-to-day concerns and that which is eternal and immutable. Understanding which is which helps us overcome our fears, not just our fears of God and dying but our fear of loss."

Taking the section name from Being and Nothingness by the great Jean Paul Sartre, Huffington replaces nothingness with somethingness. Sartre wrote profoundly and prolifically about existentialism, the unexplainable nature of humans in an isolated hostile existence, and ontology, the study of being.

Of Sartre's ouevre, which I have read quite extensively, here is one of my favorite quotes, which belies belief in nothingness. He writes:

"That God does not exist, I cannot deny; that my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget."