Going Alone

A Stoic theory of life adventure

The beginning of Going Alone

Aug 28, 2020
6 min

The beginning of Going Alone

I remember when I first thought up the idea of Going Alone. My family and I were living then in Japan, and I was making YouTube videos for the Walking in Japan and Abandoned Japan series. I was active at that time on social media, and among the questions I answered from viewers were periodic requests from people who planned to visit Japan, and who asked if they could join me on an adventure in the mountains. Such arrangements only rarely worked out, as the logistics of visiti

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No more free will

Aug 27, 2020
3 min

No more free will

I once imagined I was steering my own life in a very full and meaningful way. Full control. Nearly complete, adult, and independent self-management of my direction and course of being. Such a fool I was—grasping at the controlling wheel which I'd imagined for myself, steering left at will, and then right at will, and again right, and then left, on and on, every day and night even; driving away my life in pretend that, though I could certainly make any decision I like, I could

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Infrastructure

Aug 24, 2020
1 min

Infrastructure

There is an inward architecture which we create through the fact and consequence of our decisions and actions, which become the scaffolding structure of the inner man or woman who others may dimly see when they look us square in the eyes; perceiving a light or darkness within which shines or empties in proportion to the effort we have made to not just live, but to live well, and in accord with our perceived nature and better inclination. We fail utterly when we build our inne

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Reading good books

Aug 22, 2020
2 min

Reading good books

I once rose late each day to meander life in search of tidbits to consume: news, gossip, politics, and the shared things of the appetites of people I mostly never knew—friends, and those I follow, and others whom I merely liked what they had to say. My consumption then was a gross intake of whatever could fill the time, or stuff my attention until necessity took me aside for work, or a meal, or sleep. Such a wasteful use of time: days and weeks and months and years of life ut

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The life of faith—

Aug 21, 2020
2 min

The life of faith—

What effort is involved in holding a position of faith? The work is in the restraint needed to protect our belief from doubt. We strive to never question, or if we do question, to resist the downhill slope of asking too often if we could be wrong. Of course we are right, we just know it. And look at all the others who know as well like me—like we—like all of us who share this blessed certainty of what is true, and eternal, and the last fact we must ever know. The work is easy

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What there isn't beyond the sea

Aug 17, 2020
2 min

What there isn't beyond the sea

Life is a little like coming awake on an island beach, naked and screaming and vulnerable and weak. The natives here do care for us, and get us up off the sand to shelter and shade from the sun and night and the grinding machine outside. They teach us their tongue, and give us some ways, and show us how to be and behave and what to expect. And the natives explain why we are here while expecting belief. And so we grow seemingly strong and fluent and capable; and establish our

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The upward ground

Aug 15, 2020
2 min

The upward ground

"...and the very slope of the hill on which my house is placed, seemed to say, Forward!" -Henry David Thoreau I accept life as hard. I accept the need to rise early. I accept my difficult work. I accept circumstance which are hard for the fact of change. And I accept my things must break, and that I am broken, too— And though I wish none of these for their own sake, and I desire no such life for another, I accept this way to go, and these facts of being—and maybe much worse—

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The season of philosophy

Aug 13, 2020
2 min

The season of philosophy

As a young man, my ideas resembled the ideas of others, and my writing was an imperfect transcription of what I'd learned. My time then was better spent putting these ideas into practice; like an athlete rehearsing the instruction of their coach, making the teaching their own through the training of body and mind in order to gain the necessary strength, resilience, tone, and muscle memory to engage the world with wise instinct—the lesson of the teacher having then become the

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When our finding days are done

Aug 11, 2020
3 min

When our finding days are done

Before I was alive I'm pretty sure I simply did not exist. Oh sure, the stuff of which I am made was around, and the energy which courses through me was somewhere here—but, I wasn't. The thing which is me did not exist. The composite collection of atoms and energy which thus assembled and was given my name was never anywhere together before my conception and what was the start of a long chain of chemical reactions leading to now; a series of cellular additions—the lives and d

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Going outside

Aug 10, 2020
3 min

Going outside

There's this world where I live... And where others like me live. We are there together always. Such a nice place: with the things we like, and some ways to be, and to think. And we are always together in this world, even when we are apart. For the things we know and say and do are alike and these things bind us like strong arms about one another's shoulders—we understand one another, and we raise our little ones to understand, too. Comfort before truth— I will believe Whatev

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The grounding of goodness

Jul 17, 2020
3 min

The grounding of goodness

It is said that good actions are their own reward; bearing an immediate and lasting fruit of nearly tangible well-being unto at least the actor and perhaps the recipient and observer of his works. But what is the nature of this "goodness" that it be "good", and the action of it's pursuit constitute a course-way of virtue? Are good works virtuous by way of opinion, or through the pursuit and achievement of some higher end - an absolute standard by which our decisions and actio

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The Principle of Public Speaking

Nov 13, 2019
3 min

The Principle of Public Speaking

November 12, 2019 Dear Eric, I recently added a new principle to The Good Life which I call the Principle of Public Speaking. The idea is to always imagine that anyone about whom I am talking is beside me, overhearing everything I say about them. In this way, I hope to enlist the normal courtesy and good manners we mostly all follow in not speaking ill or untoward of anyone to their face. Mostly, this strategy works; though sometimes I forget my plan and gossip about someone

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To experience the cold and the dark

Nov 5, 2019
2 min

To experience the cold and the dark

November 4, 2019 Dear Eric, I have noticed a new trend in my thinking and writing... I've been coming upon the theme of fire often. Not fire, as in burning fire, but fire as a sort of symbol and emblem for the need we have to come together and keep back the night. It is a curious thing this community we seek - this community of warmth. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised though, as we humans seem to like being together. I think this is because when we are with others, we

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Covering ears and eyes

Oct 28, 2019
2 min

Covering ears and eyes

October 27, 2019 Dear Eric, Nice try, that... Though maybe you will have the last laugh. But I think you left us on the promise of wishful thinking... You wished to live on. You convinced yourself so completely of life after death, that you hastened to death to prove your point. Maybe now you are smiling and giggling from afterlife at my doubt and folly. Maybe you will get the last laugh. Though you sure did get a short life. Sometimes, it seems we need an extra set of hands

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Steve Irwin, dead at forty-four

Oct 25, 2019
2 min

Steve Irwin, dead at forty-four

October 25, 2019 Dear Eric, Though you lived few years, I think you lived many days. As you were around much during the time when you were here, though you were not here very long... What matters a long life if the living is only to pass the time? What kind of living is it to exist in a bunker against the light, with the windows covered and the candles snuffed out? That is an extreme example, of course - as even the most cautious among us live largely in the open. But there i

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Life as a distraction

Oct 24, 2019
4 min

Life as a distraction

October 24, 2019 Dear Eric, Do you remember the flashy show we made of our youth? No, of course, you don't. You can't remember anything... But, I do. I remember how I rode my skateboard recklessly down the pedestrian pathways at the university. And how I went barefoot on rainy days. And a whole lot of other things which I thought were bold expressions of personality and which got the attention of others. You did the same thing... Do you remember those colorful clown pants you

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A seat at the flame

Oct 23, 2019
4 min

A seat at the flame

October 23, 2019 Dear Eric, The subject of life meaning never crossed our young minds. We were perhaps simply too young then. Our thoughts were those of explorers. We were looking around at where we were and making sense of circumstance and function. Meaning, and its close cousin purpose, would come later - for me at least. To live a meaningless life... What a prospect. It can certainly be done. And what a way to live. In fact, there is some blessing in life during the early,

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Try more. Fail more.

Oct 21, 2019
3 min

Try more. Fail more.

October 21, 2019 Dear Eric, The old adage of "better to burn out than to fade away" comes to mind when I think of your short life. You did burn. You burned bright and fast and were gone seemingly as quickly as you arrived. You tried life. You tried and you found. Only you didn't find what I found, damn you. You found something else. Something I didn't like or approve of. I thought you failed. I still think you failed. At first, I thought you failed to try hard enough. Though

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A plan of life and death

Oct 19, 2019
3 min

A plan of life and death

October 19, 2019 Dear Eric, I write these words now almost twenty years to the day since I completed my story of you and Joe-Bob, sharing the impact of your living and dying upon my own life. Your example, in fact, derailed my life; as I am confident I would be a quite different person now if not for the experience of knowing you both, and watching you live and choose to exit life together on account of principles which you held and which I could not then understand—which per

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Away from the fire

Oct 16, 2019
2 min

Away from the fire

October 16, 2019 Dear Eric, To the best of my knowledge, you never once went truly alone into the wild. But that's no surprise, as few ever do. For Going Alone is something our species rarely does. No wonder perhaps we then take ourselves so seriously... No wonder we sometimes sense warmth radiating from the cold. There are campfires All across this plain Cold lights, warm with life Inviting living Friendship and love Away from the darkness beyond I understand, the darkness b

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