The Good Life - 09/15/2023 - A life apart
Updated: 6 days ago
A nice thing about growing old is the gradual lifting of the weight of responsibility. It’s a challenging change however, if there is nothing else for us to carry. For, it seems we need something to carry to feel our lives have meaning. Like an ant separated from the line of workers, standing alone with no direction or worthy burden, no other ants to mix our antenna with and pass along important messages from the hive. Such an ant won’t last long on its own. It needs to belong and be a part—not apart.
Soon, I won’t have much to carry. I’ll be like that ant apart. Furthermore, I’ll be in another world, with people of another world and that other world’s ways and customs and food and everything apart. There’s real danger and risk in this plan. A different kind of going alone—the dangerous sort of alone.
But I’m not afraid. Not one bit. Because that kind of alone is harmless to someone who has already gone alone the other way and then found their way back. It’s the return journey that’s key, as it’s irrevocable. Once fully back, we can never fully be alone again. Even in a foreign land, even without the contrived meaning of a job, even without the feign distractions of merely living. Once returned from Going Alone, we’re then never again truly alone. The real danger is past.
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.
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
8. Maintain Balance
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
35. Being Ready
#Stoic #Stoicism #StoicPhilosophy #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #SocialPrinciple
My name is Kurt Bell
Learn more about The Good Life in my book Going Alone
Be safe... But not too safe