All That is Gold does not Glitter

Lesson 1. Good, Bad and Indifferent

Part B. Same Indifference

In answering the question "What makes you happy?" the answer is frequently "stuff". Sometimes I think it is HAVING something, but it is as often BEING somewhere. It is my home, my wife, my kids, etc. My relationships. But, as Socrates points out, it isnt the things themselves that are good, that make us happy, but rather our relationship to them. How we see them.

For example, if I think of the home, it is not a static thing. It is changing all the time. Things break down (like the phone lines recently). Things get dirty. Things grow wild, like the grass and trees which are always in need of trimming. Things get old, like the roof on the gazebo. Depending on how you look at it, the home could be a practical example of Newton's second law of thermodynamics.

But, by the same token, it is a challenge to my creativity and deductive reasoning to discover and repair sources of problem. I am brought back into contact with the work I do when I care for the things that work has purchased. I am guiding and channelling the growth of nature in my suburban setting. I am planning, organizing and resourcing to fund and execute future projects. Depending on how you look at it, this home could be a practical example of Newton's fourth law of thermodynamics.

In other words, things, and this includes some states of being, are not good or bad. It is all in how you look at it, in your relationship to it.

Goodness = right relationships.

Circumstantial Evidence

Lesson 1 - Good, Bad and Indifferent.

Part A. Pomp and Circumstance

Q. What is the point of life? What do I want?
A. To be happy.
Q. How can I be happy?
A. By having or being surrounded by good things.
Q. What are good things?
A. Health, wealth, personal gifts (mind, talents, etc.), peace, friends, etc.
Q. These are all circumstatial. They 'happen to be'. But they can change. Are there more permanent goods? Things that cannot be changed by circumstance?
A. Yes. There are virtues such as compassion, vision, hope. There is also wisdom, justice, courage, temperance.

In short there are circumstantial goods, and vitues.

The Examined Life

It's interesting to me how an idea can catch fire. Once it sparks something, a really good idea can run like a flame through the rest of your life.

This is what happened yesterday. Pam and I had decided that this was a 'reset' day. With all of the craziness that has been hitting us time and time again over the last several months, we have hardly had time to catch our breaths, let alone maintain any kind of sensible life.

So yesterday we sat down together and started talking about how to get our lives under control. We fell back to the Fly Lady model for keeping the house, which let us back to the Sidetracked Home Executive (SHE) system. Pam then mentioned that the whole system used to be based on an index card system. PING!

The Hipster PDA is index cards! This led to Getting Things Done using the Hipter. A couple of shopping trips later, and we have hundreds of blank and coloured index cards, boxes and tabs. We are labelling and printing like madmen (and madwomen!) and the system starts to take shape.

As part of this system, we included our routines (5 daily sets of tasks). Included in these tasks are all of the things we need to do in order to keep this train on the rails without running off. We even had a study time together this morning (it is part of the Getting Ready routine.)

Neo-stoic

this is a description of what i believe that i recently posted in a new yahoo group that sandra and dave put together.

i am a neo-stoic in training, attempting to learn and adopt a pre-xian faith system that worked for kings and paupers alike.

i think i have found the name for the pervasive, immanent deity, that i personally resonate to. it is encapsulated in the greek work 'phusis'. think of it as life, nature, the way things grow and improve. phusis is what makes it right for an acorn to become an oak. it is evolution.

this 'phusis' is at work everywhere. it is like a soul, or a life-force, running through all matter like the soul or life of a person runs through all of their limbs. it is the soul of the world. it is the law of nature. it is the great chain of causation by which all events occur. it shapes things towards their ends. it is the natural law, but it is natural law which is alive, it is life itself. it is indistiguishable from a purpose, the purpose of the great world-process. it is like a fore-seeing, fore-knowing power.

as such it can be regarded as god(dess), nevertheless it is not ephemeral, it is material. but it is the finest material there is. it is made of fire, not ordinary fire, but intellectual fire. it is the fire that is present in living things, but not there when they are dead. a fire which has conciousness and life and does not decay. this fire, phusis, god(dess) is therefore in all life, and is what gives everything it's life.

this fire within each of us, this knowing life-force, this will of the gods, this concicous purpose, is why we feel that there must be a purpose to life, a reason for it all. this is why we feel that some lives are wasted, while others are fulfilled, regardless of how long they have been lived. when we really live, deliberately choose to live, in accordance and alignment with this universal purpose to grow and improve and acheive something lasting, that we are fulfilling the will of god(dess), meeting our purpose, filling our life.

I am the computer GOD!

I did it. It has been years, but with Adam's help, I was able to set up Lindley's computer. It was a tough task, with about 6 or 7 extra patches to install. I have yet to add the Office suite for her, but we have determined that we need to really look at her wireless card. Other than that, I worketh muchly!

Patting myself on the back!

Phusis

Life, generation, growth. This is what it means, that and more. Growing towards something, becoming something. The goal of Stoicism is to live in alignment with Phusis, the directional purpose of life.

Pam and I are going to really look into this. I have struck gold at the Internet Archive. There are dozens, if not hundreds of books that provide pretty much anything we will need in terms of learning about this way of life.

My understanding is though, that Stoicism is flawed in several ways. Metaphysics and physics are blended there, and we are just looking to extract the life lessons. So as I was explaining my discoveries of Phusis to Pam, and she came up with a label.

Phusian.

Vrroooooommmmm!

That was the sound of my weekend. Fast and fun. It was Mother's day this weekend so I had fun getting stuff together and watching Pam and Mom get their gifts.

In other news, I have started receiving cheques from Amazon.com for my book sales. I am up over $200 so far. The firt went to making sure that Pam got what she was asking for (a jewelry box). I am not sure what I am going to do with the next one.

I am continuing with the new series. Only one has been pulled into Amazon from Mobipocket so far. I am waiting to see how that system works so I can guage the amount of time it will take to get the new series up and running.

This is a logo representing Stoicism. Pam and I are going to start reading up on it again. We had started with a little Seneca over a year ago, and after much vacilating, we are going for it! I have printed out some materials that I think will be really usefull and we are going to read through them together.

Ok Back into it.

Pam has encouraged me to keep this up. It only takes a few minutes so here I go.

Not much new except chaos. The whole GTD thing has completely gone out the window. I have been so frakking busy, and having a hard time staying focussed on top of that.

My space has been invaded, and work feels out of control as well. I need a break, but when I get a break, I seem to waste the time. FOCUS!

I want to just shake my head. Got to get it together and make it work. Perhaps moving to the Palm again will eliminate the creaping list problem. I could switch to notebooks at work instead of the planner.

My Palm is broken though, so the alarms dont sound anymore. I wonder if it would be worth rebuying a plain old Tungsten E2.

I will have to see.

New Collection - Little Journeys

I have started a new collection for the Portable Library. I stumbled across the books while browsing for books on stoicism in the Intenet Archive text section.

It is called the Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great. I fell in love. Just read this...

LITTLE JOURNEYS does not claim to be a "Guide" to the places described, nor a biography of the characters mentioned. The periodical, at best, will merely make outline sketches: the backgrounds being washed in with impressions of the scenes and surroundings made sacred by the lives of certain "Good Men and Great."

Stray bits of information, "the feathers of lost birds," will here be set down ; various personal incidents will be lightly detailed, and some facts may be stated which have been told before.

If these random records of beautiful days spent in little journeys may brighten the pleasant recollections of a few of those who have already visited the places described, or add to the desire for further knowledge on the part of those who have not, the publication will have fully accomplished its mission.

And it was, indeed, wonderful. Looking around, I found the entire collection of 14 volumes on Project Gutenberg (html WITH pictures!) With the recent amazing sales of the Harvard Classics at Amazon.com, I wanted to approach this collection as a test of leveraging the power of both Amazon and Mobipocket.

I have published the first draft for sale at Mobipocket (here), while I still continue to edit and refine the process and end product.

I plan on publishing the entire series using this format. Once this has worked, I will definately be revisiting the Harvard Classics.

Writer's Block

Weird. As a self proclaimed writer and publisher, I stared at this blank box for several minutes trying to figure out what should be written here. I wonder where Adam gets his perfectionism from!

So he has encouraged me to drop notes of my own, letting people know what I am up to. One of the things I really worry about is that just trying to keep up with that will require more time than I actually have left over!

Nevertheless, it is only pixels, so I am going to make the attempt. I will try to organize my thoughts as I go, by using the labels feature.