Emily came by last night to do laundry and have dinner. It was good to see her and catch up, though she lives just down the freeway from us now, not far, but still very far—and the distance is growing.
I was thinking how her life will soon become full after college. It’s already full, in fact, and our interactions with her are more status reports of that fullness rather than participation in it. I remember giving such status reports to my dad at that same period of youth, sending him signals and semaphore from another life and trajectory of living. This was especially true when I went alone to Japan at the same age Emily is now. I wrote letters back to my dad, illustrated letters, with cartoon drawings of the things I was seeing and doing when I was then so young and all alone on the other side of the world. I bet my dad felt about my letters the same way I do about Emily’s reports of her own life—viewing these as somewhat alien correspondence of events and circumstance of an increasingly foreign life of someone you’ve always known and loved, who is slowly becoming someone else—their own self, their own life, their own person.
Emily’s signals will fade as her life recedes on a path of its own, and as Yumiko and I glide on in our conjoined trajectory. But the signal will perhaps grow stronger with the strength, vitality and resolve of young adulthood—pulsing like the light of Mars across a gulf of space and time, our orbits perhaps sometimes meeting, providing opportunity to hug and sit and share and catch up, just like grown kids have always done with the old parents they’ve left behind. It’s maybe just the way life is—each generation expiring like waves upon a shore while the new generation rises next in line. I guess I’m ready for this to happen. Though at heart I know I’ve no other choice.
The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. And visit our Discord at: https://lnkd.in/gFgfGmY6
OBJECTIVES: 1. Be Always Ready to Die 2. Make Good Use of Time and Resources 3. Develop Good and Sound Life Principles 4. Cultivate Good Emotional Reactions 5. Perform Good Actions 6. Recognize True Limits and Opportunity 7. One Thing Slowly
PRINCIPLES: 1. Principle of War 2. Principle of Reason 3. Homunculus 4. Anchorhold 5. Home of Good and Evil 6. Principle of Purpose 7. Atomic Principle 8. Principle of Nature 9. The Pirate Ride 10. Principle of Maturity 11. Social Principle
12. Principle of Family 13. Public Speaking 14. Temperance 15. Life Will Not Go Well 16. The Horror Show 17. That Which Must Be Borne 18. The Feast of Offal 19. Distraction 20. Agency and The Great Indifference 21. The Best Seat in the House 22. The Restless Man 23. The Path of Wildness 24. The Great Life Adventure 25. The Risk of Avoiding Risk 26. Sin and Damnation 27. Complete Oblivion 28. The Season of Philosophy
29. Scriptwriting 30. Bullseye Aim 31. The Uphill Climb 32. Arena and Utility 33. Nothing IS enough 34. The Principle of Fun
My name is Kurt Bell.
You can learn more about The Good Life in my book Going Alone.
Be safe... But not too safe.