Our personal nature is our most visible evidence that our will is never fully free: as how many forces of my personal being - my interest, my bias, my education, my want and especially my Biology - do conspire to steer my way? I am forever giving heed to the demands of my constitution, and can never quite say no to the man who I really am.
My nature is... The footsteps I must still take, While fooling myself into thinking That my footsteps are my own
Likewise, do you also acquiesce to your own nature, now and yesterday, and tomorrow, too! Becoming always just what you are, or what you must next be because of just what you now are. Never something else. Never what you are not, and by extension, cannot become.
And so, I will begin each day with a brief catalogue of my own character and capacity to live. And I will think also of those with whom I should today engage, and of their character and nature. And I will playact for a moment in the circumstances of today's living, and remind myself what I should expect of each place and event - for circumstance and things have their natures too - and in this way, become better prepared for what may likely be my life today; prepared, warned and tempered by the recognition, understanding and acceptance of our natures, and of the way things are likely to be, when our lives meet, and we come together to live.
And in this way I live a more deliberate and honest life. Not a life of resignation - though there is some of that as well - but of recognition, and of the opportunity to react in our own way - and give way in our own way - and live well, always...each, in our own way.
My name is Kurt Bell.
You can learn more about The Good Life in my book Going Alone.
Be safe... But not too safe.
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