Going Alone

A Stoic theory of life adventure

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  • GOING ALONE

    • INTRODUCTION
    • THE CAST
    • THE WRITING BRIDGE
    • MY MUSE IS A CORPSE
    • THE ANXIETY HIKE
    • THE PATH OF WILDNESS
    • GOING ALONE
    • STOIC POETRY
    • THE GOOD LIFE
    • MY GOD IS A LITTLE GOD
    • FINAL THOUGHTS
    • EPILOGUE
    • ECCLESIASTES 9
    • RECOMMENDED READING
    • APPENDIX
  • THE GOOD LIFE

    • THE PROBLEM OF NIHILISM
    • BE ALWAYS READY TO DIE
    • GOOD AND EFFECTIVE USE OF TIME
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    • GOOD EMOTIONAL REACTIONS
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    • THE PRINCIPLE OF WAR
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    • HOMUNCULUS
    • ANCHORHOLD
    • THE HOME OF GOOD AND EVIL
    • THE PRINCIPLE OF PURPOSE
    • THE ATOMIC PRINCIPLE
    • THE PRINCIPLE OF NATURE
    • THE PIRATE RIDE
    • THE PRINCIPLE OF MATURITY
    • THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE
    • PUBLIC SPEAKING
    • THE FEAST OF OFFAL
    • TEMPERANCE
    • THE HORROR SHOW
    • THAT WHICH MUST BE BORNE
    • DISTRACTION
    • AGENCY AND THE GREAT INDIFFERENCE
    • THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE
    • THE PATH OF WILDNESS
    • HAND ON THE TILLER
    • THE RISK OF AVOIDING RISK
    • SIN AND DAMNATION
    • COMPLETE OBLIVION
    • THE GREAT LIFE ADVENTURE
    • THE SEASON OF PHILOSOPHY
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    • NOTHING IS ENOUGH
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    Search
    STOIC POETRY | The beginning of Going Alone
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 28, 2020
    • 6 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    37 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | No more free will
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 27, 2020
    • 3 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    21 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | Infrastructure
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 24, 2020
    • 1 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    18 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | Reading good books
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 22, 2020
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    22 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | The life of faith—
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 21, 2020
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    19 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | What there isn't beyond the sea
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 17, 2020
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    22 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | The upward ground
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 15, 2020
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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—
    24 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | The season of philosophy
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 13, 2020
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    15 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | When our finding days are done
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 11, 2020
    • 3 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    19 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | Going outside
    Kurt Bell
    • Aug 10, 2020
    • 3 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    24 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | The grounding of goodness
    Kurt Bell
    • Jul 17, 2020
    • 3 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    22 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | The Principle of Public Speaking
    Kurt Bell
    • Nov 12, 2019
    • 3 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    26 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | To experience the cold and the dark
    Kurt Bell
    • Nov 4, 2019
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    30 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | Covering ears and eyes
    Kurt Bell
    • Oct 27, 2019
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    26 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | Steve Irwin, dead at forty-four
    Kurt Bell
    • Oct 25, 2019
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    68 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | Life as a distraction
    Kurt Bell
    • Oct 24, 2019
    • 4 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    20 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | A seat at the flame
    Kurt Bell
    • Oct 23, 2019
    • 4 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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,
    10 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | Try more. Fail more.
    Kurt Bell
    • Oct 21, 2019
    • 3 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    26 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | A plan of life and death
    Kurt Bell
    • Oct 19, 2019
    • 3 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    36 views0 comments
    STOIC POETRY | Away from the fire
    Kurt Bell
    • Oct 16, 2019
    • 2 min

    STOIC POETRY | 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
    37 views0 comments
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    ABOUT

    Going Alone was begun by Kurt Bell in an effort to help others understand and manage  the recognition of the apparent indifference of the universe to our well being, happiness or even our existence, and to find ways to make a good life in spite of this fact.

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    © by Kurt Bell