The Good Life - 09/16/2023 - Walking the castle walls
Updated: 6 days ago
As I age, especially these last few years closing in on sixty, I perceive an interesting gap widening between my body and my mind. It’s a little like a moat around an old castle, a barrier of sorts separating what’s happening outside from the sanctuary of my thoughts. Arthritis is like enemy archer’s arrows flying across the water and bouncing so far harmless off my stone walls. Sure, a few get through, up and over the wall, but most fail to be more than simply a mindful nuisance. Fatigue is like a crowd of soldiers making threatening noises before my retracted drawbridge. While failing muscle tone waves at me like the flags of mortality across the field in a foreign leader’s camp. More worrisome are the tumors popping up lately, which rise like siege-engines under construction beyond the reach of my own archer’s bows. It’s only a matter of time before one of those great devices gets across the water and up and over the wall. That’s a thing to be ready for. But in the meantime I’ll walk these high ramparts and enjoy the view. Such a splendid countryside surrounding this old castle. What a sight to behold! And I’ll spend lots of time in the castle library, well provisioned as it is with good books and resources for the mind. And good time in the great hall with my queen and our two hounds. Such feasts we shall enjoy! But all the while I’ll remember the army outside the walls now striving to get in. Mindful always that every castle must one day fall.
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 #GoodUseOfTime
My name is Kurt Bell
Learn more about The Good Life in my book Going Alone
Be safe... But not too safe