Tag Archives: Meaning of life

An Inauspicious Beginning

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I went to the store this morning; collected what I needed and proceeded to checkout only to realize I’d forgotten my wallet.

Am ominous foreboding appears; what terrible occurrence will be next, I wonder. Will the dermatologist I visit later in the day need to autopsy a suspicious mole? Will the engine dash icon reoccurring with maddening irregularity require roadside assistance? Will all the tables be full at Bridgeman’s requiring a painful wait for our planned breakfast? Will Elon Musk become a trillionaire?

So many uncertainties. Must I accept that angst will always be a constant companion? Is stoic oversight the best solution to maintaining a peaceful existence?

Silly isn’t it to dwell on such insignificance when I know everything will be better tomorrow morning. For a while anyway. Until angst sets in once again.

Reminiscence

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Reminiscing with my siblings recently, sharing early memories of our home life, we found ourselves in the unique position, as so many families do, of calling up from the past events only we could know, renewing in the process common bonds. Diverse as our adult lives have become, sending us in different physical as well as emotional directions, the basic values developed in our childhood still hold. We share observations of our own children hoping we have passed along to them the sense of compassion, concern for our fellowman that we received from our parents, who always regarded family as their first concern.

Diverse as our adult lives have become, sending us in different physical as well as emotional directions, the basic values of our childhood check the varying complexities of our thought processes now allowing us to accommodate each other, although maybe best in the end to limit such gatherings to no more than one full day.

Transcendence

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Our first camping trip of the season with our small camper has me noticing the variety of large camping trailers and vans filling the parks this month. I’m struck by the names of some of these large mini-homes that are being directed into the nicely designed private campsites the state parks offer.

I’m wondering how the campers who are bringing these camping luxuries are thinking about the experience they’re expecting to have. Names like Transcend, Escape, Flight and the like suggest a vision the owner might have of finding his way beyond everyday existence to an alternative reality, at least for a few days, where the children will be happy and occupied where one can sit near an open campfire in contemplation, exchanging pleasantries with equally serene neighbors while enjoying well-functioning wifi access, warm toilets and showers.

Reality, of course will eventually set in as one tires of the long walk to the restrooms, replenishing the camper’s water reservoir, chopping wood and starting fires; the bed could be a bit more comfortable. It’s time to return home, let one’s colleagues know about roughing it while enjoying ‘the great outdoorsman’ status.

I guess it’s no wonder why so many people do it.

Modern Art and Politics

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I saw an exhibit at the MIA recently that has me thinking about the confrontation between the fascist Nazi politics in pre-WWII Germany, confronted, as it was, by progressive cultural phenomena in the arts. The militaristic rigidity of the political authority at the time championing an Aryan superiority found nothing to like in the freedom of expression that was prevalent in German modernism of the time.

Political authorities denigrated modernism going so far as to produce an exhibit of modernist work labeling it degenerate, then confiscating and burning many works.

Something familiar about heavy-handed political will to control an unfavorable narrative.

Ways to Live

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In the late 19th Century Friedrich Nietzsche warned of the downside of embracing Christian morality, a slave-like adherence limiting one’s potential to achieve. One should reject such belief, he suggests, and instead strive to become, lift oneself above herd morality and establish a unique personal independence.

100 years later Rabbi Jonathon Sacks advocated for social integration achievable through adherence to a ‘do unto others’ imperative and achievable through spiritual faith. Such a moral stance ensures social cooperation and cohesiveness in keeping with societal norms and ethical principles.

Better, then, to relish a freedom beyond herd morality and an open-ended progressive future devoid of adherence to societal norms or the freedom spiritual belief and adherence to ethical principles shared among like minds provides?

Past and Future

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It’s a fact that generation after generation of humankind reveled in the remembered past, times that in the collective mind were so much better than those presently being lived through. Psychologically it figures, I guess, considering the uncertainties of the ‘now’, problems we must deal with while problems of the past have long since been resolved, difficulties forgotten yielding pleasant memories of past good times.

So, we may conservatively champion the nostalgic past rather than endure the uncertainties of a dynamic future that requires us to stay alert and tuned in, but we have to ask ourselves which scenario will produce the most satisfying personal results.

Contemplation

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Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, denigrates ‘paid employment’ as an unacceptable lifestyle, that, he says, absorbs and degrades the mind. He means, I guess, that a regular job with regular hours occupies so much of one’s being there’s little time for what is truly important: contemplation.

Jumping ahead a couple of millennia, Henry David Thoreau arrived at a similar conclusion. H. D. determined, living as he did in a small cabin in the woods, that to live one’s life fully, within the natural world one must resist the draw of materialistic society.

And certainly, many more individuals throughout time have opted for a life on the fringes of society to pursue an existence of deeper personal meaning. What they have provided us, through their disciplined, frugal lives, is a vision of beauty and meaning that benefits us all.

Virtue

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I’ve been reading Aristotle’s Ethics lately. In it, he spends considerable time defining what it means to be virtuous. His investigations consider how one’s feelings or actions determine how one measures up virtue-wise, the general rule being the exercise of moderation in one’s behavior, avoiding excess on the one hand but acting when action is called for, providing it’s the right action to the right person to the right extent at the right time with the right motive in the right way.

As I think about it, it seems to me excessive behaviors are not something I might be accused of but perhaps I am a bit lax when it comes to social action. Even so, I wonder if I want the label. Assuming virtuosity as a personal trait seems a bit pretentious. I guess, though, there’s nothing wrong in having pride in one’s good behavior, but I have to wonder how capable I am of getting all the ‘rights’ right.

The Importance of Pluralism

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As Christianity took hold in Rome following the dream that inspired Constantine to declare it acceptable, lawful and primary within the empire, church fathers imposed their political will.  Christian orthodoxy became the law of the land, all unorthodox believers subject to extreme punishment or death.  Huge numbers were forcibly baptized, making them subject to the will of the Church.  The results of this oppression suppressed free thought and led to the destruction of the learned texts and knowledgeable thought of the previous 500 years.  As these dark ages persisted literacy disappeared and western civilization reverted, learning replaced by mythical thinking. 

How are things different now?  Strong armed political will push a narrative aimed toward personal enrichment for a few without regard to the majority.  200 years of intellectual progress opened myriad ideas producing unprecedented cultural and technological innovation in a truly pluralistic society is being attacked.  The xenophobic fears of a populous looking backwards are in danger of finding themselves living in the kind of closed society that history informs us has been the demise of many earlier civilizations. 

The Demise of Closed Societies

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The historical significance of an open society; encouraging immigration, acceptance of cultural and religious differences has produced over the centuries multi-cultural populations sharing diverse ideas that result in a more productive society; room and time for people to excel at what they do best.

Even so, there are those among us, a conservative population, comfortable with their neighbors of similar ethnicity, religious beliefs and culture, where the status quo is an undeniable rule. Immigrant populations are discouraged, disallowed to participate, denied an initial hand-up and isolated rather than given the means to assimilate, which is what they desire.

It should be remembered that over the course of history closed societies are destined for collapse.