The Good Life - 08/01/2023 - Growing distant
Week by week I’m loosening the connections which bind and hold me to the great machine of contemporary society. This isn’t a deliberate effort. I just can’t seem to help it now. My life is becoming like that curious cinematic trick wherein the camera suddenly shifts, and the main character at once finds himself a hundred yards back from the crowd, observing from a distance while everyone else engages some challenging issue in muted, far away voices. This happened twice yesterday at work, during meetings which I was leading. I went on talking and taking notes, but from far away, further than where emotions could reach; peacefully typing and talking and smiling like the contented old man I have slowly become. If this experience is a side-effect of growing old, then blessed are the old. The Stoics might call this experience apathy—in the best sense of the word—and I think that is right. As this apathy is not disinterest, or lack of caring, but instead, is simply a more mature recognition—and acceptance—of what is, and what is not, under our control; and the fact that so very little is ever truly, really, under our control, besides the decisions we make relative to how we choose to act and respond to the world as it is happening around us now. With such apathy comes a comfortable buffer-like distance within a crowd, a quieter form of peace in the face of strife, and a calmer species of more deliberate action, guided of resolve, than could maybe not be mustered at any earlier or less mature season of life. I had no idea old age held such boon for those who are ready to become old—as such acceptance may be the curious, yet ironically very sweet, price of admission.
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.