The Good Life - 07/03/2023 - July 4th weekend
Such a crowd at the beach yesterday… I sat on my towel for a bit and soaked it all up: warm air and a light summer breeze, cool saltwater, people everywhere, lots of noise—a festive sense of summer life. There was a big group of teens on the sand to the one side of me, young people collected into two groups: fit young boys sitting, standing and talking too loud, and the girls they were with, laying on big, colorful beach-towels, all lined up in a row in their bikinis, listening and taking and sharing selfies among themselves while watching the show, the loud boys raging on. On the other side was a big family with four kids; mom feeding everyone while dad dug a deep hole with his son, the whole troop going back and forth constantly to and from the water’s edge, traipsing wet, and covered with sand. Angela and Dale were probably out there somewhere on the beach, lost in the busy crowd, our daily routine and habits here superseded by the will of energy of the July 4th weekend life.
I took off my shirt and went down and into the sea. I walked through the inside waves and then swam out past the small breakers to where the blue-green water was clear, and where the sandy bottom was plainly visible just ten feet down, and where I could see several stingray resting on the bottom looking up, eying my kicking feet, while two sets of lifeguard eyes watched me carefully from towers 16 and 18, eying my bobbing head. I took a single deep breath and then dove down below and into the waves, down to the bottom to glide inches above the sand with my eyes wide open, startling the stingrays which scattered ahead of me as I flew out and further away from the shore, alone and deeper below the waves, down to where the water was darker, silent and very still.
There’s colder water down there, further below. Colder and more refreshing the deeper I go. I just need to remember to go. And I need to remember always to only go out there, and down there, only alone.
#GoingAlone #TrueLimitsAndOpportunity
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
#Stoic #Stoicism #StoicPhilosophy
My name is Kurt Bell.
You can learn more about The Good Life in my book Going Alone.
Be safe... But not too safe.