Our Time

Your ability to control your thoughts--treat it with respect. It's all that protects your mind from false perceptions--false to your nature, and that of all rational beings. It's what makes thoughtfulness possible, and affection for other people, and submission to the divine.

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

It's December 31st and time to think about the past year and the one to come. What did you do and what can you do better? Did you waste time thinking about things that were out of your control and too little time focused on those things within your control? Did you work to control that one thing completely within your realm: your mind? 

It's an opportunity to survey how much time was wasted on trivial distractions versus meaningful progress towards the good. There is plenty of time in a given year to accomplish much if one spends one's time wisely, if one takes charge of one's time. One objective will be to use my time wisely and not let a day slip by without making progress on something. No more wasted days. For in those days, one upon another, is our lives. We bother over $20, but will let an entire day slip away without a trace.

My goal for 2018 is to use my time more wisely. To do things that may be difficult, but will leave behind something of value such as a stronger mind and body. Be well.

Create Your Own Christmas

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

Epictetus

That's about it isn't it, that's the core of this thing called Stoicism. Separate the events in your life into two distinct areas, those in your control and those out of your control. It sounds so simple, but how often do we get lost in that distinction. Here are the holidays, Christmas is almost upon us, and the big issue is our expectations of how things should be rather than how they are. We even distort the past to paint the present in a certain way. There were those wonderful Christmases we had so long ago that will never be again. Maybe so... I tend to think we color them in two ways, both of them wrong. Either they were these bright, happy days with family and friends and fat gooses (does anyone eat a goose nowadays?), or they were these sad days because the family was apart, the goose was gone, and, perhaps, we were alone. We tend to romanticize both versions: it was never really as good or as bad as we remember. (Note: I am just thinking about normal bad times here, not those times that end up being a Netflix series or drive new legislation.) 

Never mind all the issues around the commercialization of Christmas, the buy, buy as the path to happiness. What gets me is the selling of the emotional side, the way it has of making people feel worse on December 25th even if everything is perfectly fine. We expect the rosy cheeked kids opening presents in front of a glowing fireplace while the white, cardigan clad grandparents sit watching. I like the "Trailer Park Boys" image better: Wouldn't we all rather be home getting stoned and drunk with our families. It all comes down to expectations... We can't create that Norman Rockwell scene that has been so oversold and puts everyone into debt both financially and, more importantly, emotionally. But, we can take advantage of a few days off from work and the opportunity to get stoned and drunk with our families and friends.

The important thing is that, regardless of our circumstances, we do have our will to find happiness (contentment, might be the better word), by doing something other than feeling sorry for ourselves. Don't allow that fantasy to slip in of how things are supposed to be, they are the way they are which is a gift.  We can use our will to share what we have and spend time with others that might not be our families. There are people that would rather hide for the entire holiday because they have this fantasy of how it should be. Maybe you won't be with the rich grandparents showering you with gifts (would anyone care for a Lexus?), or be the rich grandparents doing the showering. But, remember, you have something to give. Find someone to share a moment with. If you are sitting alone thinking of other times or imagining something that never was, you need to explore that with every ounce of Stoicism at your disposal. If there is anytime of year that requires a philosophy, it's this week from Christmas to New Year.

Regardless, I am hoping things go on sale on Tuesday! I need some new boots. Be well.

Good Fortune

I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me.

But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions. 

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

In time, when youth has long passed, you have a chance to look back at your life and realize those moments when choices were made. There were times when you had a chance to choose one path among many. There were those easy paths that allowed you to continue on without much effort, and then those difficult ones that were a challenge, that required change and uncertainty. If we add all of those choices together, we end up with the life we have today. The guide for those choices should be virtue rather than pleasure, the desire to do the good, the right thing, and often the more difficult one. There is no mystery between good and bad because we all know the difference. As it has been said, by who I can't remember, "When in doubt do the right thing because we all know what the right thing is." With the word fortune, I am not talking about possessions in all their forms, but, no doubt there is some of that. There is of course the unvirtuous man with great wealth but that is a different story. It goes without saying that good fortune comes in many forms, but in the end the key to the two words, "good fortune" is the word "good" because the fortune, if it is worthy, must be good. Fortune, is our present situation. Is it good, or are we stuck with an empty life filled with empty pleasures. Are we petty, angry, jealous, unloved, alone, without the fortune that can come only from love? Love of others, love of ourselves. We come to that fortune of a good life by a thousand choices so that in the end someone who made different choices will look upon that person with good fortune as lucky. 

What is the path you are on, and is it an easy one or one that requires some effort? Luck isn't easy, it turns out that it can be a lot of work. It requires attention.

There was a farmer that had a gorgeous farm. He was walking along a fence checking each post for rot when a man approached him. The man asked if this was the farmer's farm? The farmer replied that it was. 

The man stood there and saw the white, sturdy fence surrounding a pasture with cows. Up the road there was a large barn with various pieces of equipment around it and beyond that a white house surrounded by trees with a large porch. He took it all in and turned to the man and said, "The lord has surely blessed you with good fortune." 

The farmer replied, "Well, maybe so, but it sure was a mess when he blessed me with it."

And so is life. We are given everything we need, the raw material of good fortune, our farm, and it is up to us what we mold with it. Be well.

Is Change an Illusion?

This too is one of the evils of foolishness: it is always beginning to live.

Epicurus as quoted by Seneca

This brings up the question of whether or not it is possible to change by simply flipping a switch in one's mind and taking a different path. If I put together some grand plan and set a date for a change, is that a foolish path? It seems I am always thinking of some change, but often lack the discipline to follow through and take the steps needed. In the real world, yes, I go through the steps to reach a goal, but what of the world of the mind? How often do I go down a mental path but fail to stay on that path. 

What is wisdom? Always wanting the same thing, always rejecting the same thing. You do not even have to add the proviso that what you want should be right: only for the right can one have a consistent wish.

Seneca, Letters on Ethics #20

Thoreau warns of activities that require new clothes because too often they also require a different man. Do different ideas require a new suit? More to come... 

Today is the Time and Now is the Moment

Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realize the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.” 

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius 

How much time have I wasted waiting for something to happen rather than doing that thing that was scratching at the back of my mind? What was the greater risk: to open the door to that thought and act upon it, or to wait and postpone opening the door to that thought? I think I know the answer. Yes, there is a need for prudence, but there is also a need for progress on that thing I wanted to do, but was either too afraid or too lazy to work towards. Anything worth doing requires a focused effort. These posts, for example, don't write themselves--although it may seem like they do. If I want to pursue something, advance my enlightenment by studying philosophy, it will require effort. There will come a day when everything will end for me, and if there is time to think before that happens, do I want that second, week, month to be filled with regret? I am on that path. Instead of working towards training my mind, I continue to waste my mind on the trivial. 

Step one: what is that "thing" worthy of my attention and energy? And what activity am I engaged in now that is preventing me from feeling that regret at my last moment? What would I pursue if I was told I had a year to live? I would be healthy, but would pass in 365 days? What would I do with my 365 days? And of course, it could be there is even less time because we don't know when the curtain will fall? It could be in mid-sentence, as I type these words, or it could be 30 years from now. What do I want to be doing with my time when I am called off the stage? Pursuing enlightenment... What is enlightenment? Understanding what in life has value and then living by that value. Be well. 

Staying Focused on the Project at Hand

What is my big project in life? Is it to buy a house? Get a good job? Produce art? Be happy? Have money set aside for retirement? Die with the most toys?

Each morning as I wake, I am confronted with my big project, but my efforts on most days are not directed toward advancing on it. My project is to work towards being a good person, a virtuous person. It's a big project but one that is mostly ignored. It should be at the center of my days. If I focus only on what is in front of me, and work towards doing the best that I possibly can, I am making progress. If I waste my time focusing on things out of my control, literally waste my life focusing on things that will not bring me closer to being that good person, I will continually be distracted. As a minor example, I reset my browser so that it doesn't offer up the days news to me. I found it to be the source of much distraction particularly given the recent big news about Jessica Simpson that kept appearing on my screen.

An innocent enough piece of clickbait, but the fact that it appeared on my screen all day, and I remembered it enough to mention it here, is a sad comment on what I allow into my brain. Part of being a good person surely has to be guarding what I allow into my head. If my day is filled with the absorption of trivia about trivia about trivia then what can the result be but a trivial mind?

The project at hand is to focus my mind on that which will add to my life not diminish it. Yes, it's fine to watch television dramas about life at Versailles when I am in control and know I am opening my mind to the trivial looking to be entertained. The insult to my time and life is when I hand over my mind without knowing. I will make sure the front door is locked 20 times a day, but how often do I make sure my mind is locked to those that wish to rob me of my own thoughts. And what do we have other than our thoughts? 

Guard your mind and stay focused on the task at hand. Be well. 

Freedom, Judgment, Will and Integrity

The first thing I should do in the morning is realize I am free to go through the day as I will. I have freedom because I only direct my energy towards those things immediately in my control. If I have to drive to work in the morning and I leave at 8:00 AM, I know the traffic will be heavy and it's going to take between 30 and 45 minutes to get to work. Why struggle with that fact and pretend there is anything I can do to move the traffic along. I can get in the left lane, the center lanes or the right lane, but I can't create a new lane with no cars in it. I have the freedom to take it for what it is and not allow it to alter my mind, my mood or any aspect of the day other than the few extra minutes my commute will take.

Traffic can be used as a metaphor for every seemingly unpleasant thing I have to deal with in my day. I have the freedom to decide how, or if, I will react to that "traffic." There are unpleasant people I will interact with and for some people I will be that unpleasant person. In fact, the majority of the "traffic" will be what happens in my own mind as I choose to allow anger, disappointment, or my sense of entitlement to muddle my perspective. I have the freedom to allow those feelings to drive my day or to cast them aside just as I don't allow the person that cuts in front of me to spin up an angry response. They didn't do that as an assault on my dignity, they are just driving their car. I am free to react how I choose. 

My judgment gives me freedom. I can decide how to judge the things that happen around me. And the primary judgment of most of the things that happen around me should be indifference. I can think the flow of activity around me has something to do with me, that the world is in some way against or even for me, or I can see it has little to do with me. I decide how to judge or, maybe more importantly, how not to judge. It is how we judge things that impacts how we react to the world. We are free when we judge the world as it is rather than how we wish it to be or twist it to make us the victim. When we judge wrongly we can lose our freedom, which is essentially control of our minds and actions.

I have control of my will, how I want to direct my energy. How I direct my will is at the center of the four concepts: Freedom, Judgment, Will and Integrity. My will is what I apply to direct my freedom, judgment, and maintain my integrity. The one thing I must realize as fully my own is my will. And of course that will can be applied to the defeat of injustice. If I want to maintain my integrity, I can't ignore injustice, dishonesty, theft, etc. I have an obligation to myself to not be a part of anything that would compromise my core beliefs as a human being trying to get through life without diminishing another person that is also trying to live a good life.

I am free so long as I make the choice to see the world as it truly is. Circumstances will arise that will hinder me, that will require a change of course, but even these things are but a test of my will. There is a daily effort to see things as they truly are and to exist within reality. The world is a crazy place full of confused beings misapplying their will, distorting their judgement, abandoning their integrity all with the goal of being free. But it is impossible to be free when we do not have control of those basics. 

My goal in life is be in control of that which is mine, that which I can truly control--my mind while I still have it. Be well.