How Relevant is Philosophy and Spirituality to Daily Life?

Pretty damn. But a conversation I had the other day made me wonder about variation.

I offered a comment to a friend while playing the new halo (which rocks, by the way). It was the kind of statement one might describe as 'philosophical' and that was my friend's reaction.

"Wow...very philosophical." And then that was it.

Granted, I don't expect people to engage me in conversations while we're dick deep in alien corpses trying to sort out the friendlies from the hostiles in a warzone. However, it got me thinking about relevance. When people hear something meaningful, something that they have to think about and struggle with to understand, do they prefer to just label it as 'meaningful' or 'philosophical' and just move on?

In some ways that's what words are for. They're stand ins so that I don't have to describe an entire table every time I want to talk about one. I just say "table". It's almost like a shield that distances you from a thing through labeling.

So I wondered. People who are philosophical are generally thought of as having their heads in the clouds, being idealist, and impractical. But then there were people like Thoreau and Emerson who were philosophical and applied those philosophies to their daily life, how they made decisions and saw the world.

Therefore I think the question isn't is philosophy or spirituality relevant to daily life but rather how is your life relevant to them? To me, philosophy informs my idea of the world and existence, and that in turn informs the way I go about in that world. It's the very real perspective I take into account with ever action and inaction I take.

So when I made this comment to my friend, I thought I was speaking to a relatable relevant truth about daily life. And he thought I was just talking to get deep.

Take a buddhist statement like "the moment is water." See which side of the fence you're on.