Teaching Social Media

I really enjoy teaching Social Media classes +EliquoTraining - 

What more could you ask for?

I was reading my last post, and it struck me that my 'list' might sound like boasting. It isn't. All I am saying is that through great luck and some effort, I was able to accomplish what so many at my age are still striving for. It isn't that I am ungrateful.

That's not it at all. I am very lucky. I was born in a great country, into a great family. Despite, or perhaps because, of choices I have made, things have turned out this way. I just want to find out why.

It isn't due to dissatisfaction, or boredom, or greed. I have tasted richness and depth and, though rarely, transcendence. I have traveled to some pretty amazing places, accomplished some cool things, eaten some weird food, and met some interesting people. Compared to my day to day life though, all of those things pale in importance.

I am not about to start filling my life with additional goals that serve no purpose besides spending what ever time and disposable income I have left. Having reached this amazing point in my life, I am asking myself what it is all for. What is the purpose of all of this?

I have been lightly reading philosophy, especially Stoicism, and I am well versed in Christian thought. I have read and toyed with atheism. I have had the briefest introduction to eastern religion and philosophy, though what I have learned appears interesting. Though they appear to have much in common, they approach the goal of life in different ways.

A brief overview seems to produce one of five possible answers to my quest.

1. Asking 'What is the purpose of life?' is a false question. It is like asking 'what is the scent of blue?' It sounds like a question grammatically, but logically it is senseless. There is no purpose. Despite our advances in technology, "the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
2. The key purpose in life is to enrich and protect those things that are important to me. It is to find out what I love and am passionate about, and experience as much of that as possible. Find and embrace beauty and pleasure, avoid pain.
3. Make myself a better person, aiming at the excellence that I was born with. Learn more, get stronger, think more clearly. Study, exercise, write, produce beautiful things for the sheer joy of it.
4. Be useful. Make this world a better place for having been in it. Give my children what I didn't have. Help the poor. Work towards social justice.
5. Prepare myself for the world to come, for my next life, for the hereafter. Cleanse myself of sin/illusion/karma to join with the divine. Get my soul ready for the next great adventure, after I die. 

I will explore these five approaches to finding meaning in my life, likely with frequent sidebars into other topics as they present themselves.

What is the Purpose of Life?

I have been thinking about life over the past few days. More than usual.

I am approaching my 50th birthday, and my health is not at its best. Beside that, though, I have pretty much everything that most people seem to be aiming for.

• I have a stable job that pays well and that I enjoy doing
• I have a few close friends who make me laugh, provide a safety net for me, and who I care for and about.
• My weight is really the only health problem I have, with most of my other issues (which are admittedly minor) stemming from it. My vision is good, my hearing passes, and I have full mobility.
• I have a home that needs work, but successfully keeps my family and I warm and dry. More than this, it is actually unusually large property for the area. Finally it is my grandfather's home.
• I have important books overflowing my bookshelves, music that would fill days to listen to, and enough access to information and entertainment to fill several lifetimes.
• MOST importantly, I have a partner, wife, best friend who walks alongside, and frequently supports me. My children are wonderful people in their own right, my brothers both talk to me, and I get along very well with my in-laws. Family is great.

So what is my problem? Having all of these things in my life, how can I not be satisfied? How can I not be happy?

That is just it. I am satisfied! I am very happy! I am grateful on a daily basis, and I take the time to express my love and gratitude to all who need to hear it.

But I still wonder... what of it. It won't last, it will change. I know that, and I accept it. I know that death is real, and close and personal, and so I prepare myself for it as best I can. But I don't fear it. There would be no point.

The old Roman cry of "Eat, drink and be merry! For tomorrow we die!" rings hollow in my ears. True, we die, but we also live. And while we are alive... we must LIVE.

So. That is the question. What IS the purpose/aim/goal/meaning of life?

I plan to continue exploring this question in the following blog posts.

THE SINEWS OF A STOIC PHILOSOPHER

THE SINEWS

OF A STOIC PHILOSOPHER

by Michel Daw

~

A poem inspired from Epictetus, Discourses, II.8

~

Faithful, modest, and tranquil
With nobility undeterred
A desire undisappointed
And aversions unincurred

Pursuits duly exerted
Assents unerringly made
Resolutions carefully taken
And life embraced unafraid

A Hazardous Life

A Hazardous Life

I have a horror of rest;
Possessions encourage one to indulge in it.
And there is nothing like security
For making one fall asleep.

I like life well enough
To want to live it awake.
And so in the very midst of my riches
I maintain the sensation of a state of precariousness,
By which means I aggravate,
Or at any rate, intensify
My Life.

I will not say I like danger
But I like life to be hazardous.
And I want it to demand at every moment
The whole of my happiness
My courage
My health.

From André Gide's L'immoraliste (1902)/The immoralist (1953)

An Epicurean Day

  6:00 -   1. Wake Up. Set the frame of the day,
  2. Shower, shave, clean clothes in good condition.
  6:30 -  3. Breakfast, inspiration, news & review of the day ahead.
  7:15 - 4. Brisk walk, warm up, connect with outside.
  7:30 - 5. Commute to work - work related audio
  8:00 -  6. Arrive at work. Review and Plan for the morning's work.
  9:00 - 7. Work on MITs and Big Rocks
12:00 - 8. BREAK for lunch, different venue and input.
12:30 -   9. Plan for the following day & week
13:00 - 10. Complete remaining tasks.
16:30 - 11. Commute from work - education or entertainment audio
17:00 - 12. Exercise and wind down.
18:00 - 13. Dine with friends and family, enjoy the meal and company
19:30 - 14. Games, entertainment and projects
21:30 - 15. Prepare for the next day and go to sleep.

A day without aim.

This day has been a simple one. I spent most of the day at home, ostensibly sick. It is a short week, in a ddition to that. I haven't started the week's lesson yet, not have I started editing next week's lesson/ Although it is only Tuesday, I somehow feel that the week is getting away from me.

The discussion on the ISF continues on, though no one has chaged theri mind about their position, but the work itself has helped my to focus

Getting seriously tired.