If you have been following this blog from the very first post. I had originally named it ‘JustBart.blog’. The name felt like it lacked any character and I really wanted to present a name that was fitting to the overall nature of the blog itself…my thoughts, opinions and wisdom summarized in a post. Plus, given my interest in Greek philosophy, I wanted to add that flair to the name. So, without further ado, this is “A life well lived” in Latin of course. I have no clue whether the lexical structure is accurate to how it would be stated by a born Latin speaker, but from what I gather, its sufficient for me.
Also, this brings up a great topic to discuss Life. My objective in these posts are to offer you a position and let that contend with your already held beliefs. If you find something worth considering then great. If you disagree with me, just the same, because now you have tested your convictions to a position you perhaps didn’t consider and walked away stronger on your belief. In the end, you (the reader) benefit.
So first lets lay a truth down. The first being that we will all die.
HELLO, didn’t see that heavy hitter coming did you?
Well its true and whether that sparks fear or perhaps was something you never considered, that will be a topic for another day. However, we can both agree that we will die either by natural causes or unforeseen circumstances. Every breath we take is another breath towards death (stop holding your breath!!!). The next truth is that, we want to enjoy that life. So where does this logically conclude. We can commute the two premises and realize that the conclusion is, “I should enjoy life …and breathe less.”
NO!
A much more thoughtful conclusion would be, “Whether I only live just today, I want that life to be enjoyable”.
Lets dig in and sift through.
You have two people that you don’t know well, both die and you are going to be at their wake ceremony…you know…the service that is so ironically named for loved ones to pay respect and recount the highlights of the duly departed…who said society couldn’t offer humor? Anyway, consider at this moment, “Who of the two deceased do you think had a more enjoyable life?” or rather, “Who got to live the better life between the two?” now you may consider that there isn’t much to go on. so lets spoon feed the information to see if your opinion shifts.
Person A : Was married.
Person B: Never married.
anything?
Person A : Estranged from parents and siblings.
Person B: Had a meaningful relationship with his parents and siblings.
leaning to B?
Person A: Made a high middle class wage.
Person B: Near poverty, in and out of homelessness.
are we pulling back towards A?
Ok finally, Person A lived up to 30 while Person B lived to the age of 78.
You really can’t make a solid decision on any of these facts because perhaps the 30 year old had came to terms with their estrangement or perhaps the 78 year old didn’t really mind their poverty status and homelessness as it meant they were tied down to responsibilities. Even more so, age doesn’t translate to having a more well lived life. As Seneca the Younger offered wisdom on this, “Life, if you know how to use it, is long”. His position is that a life that is lived well and meaningful is a life lived at length, regardless of whether that length is 30 or 78 years. So, which would you want? A long life filled with mostly things you didn’t enjoy or weren’t meaningful or a meaningful one that ends short? For a Stoic, You have to consider that everything in your life that isn’t in your control, it doesn’t belong to you, it is merely something that is yours for a time and when that time it up, POOF, not yours…but again, it never was because if it was, you would be in control of whether it no longer became yours. So that means the house, the job, the guy or gal, the picture perfect whatever that toots your horn, it may be in your life for a time but it isn’t of your life, meaning you don’t own it and why waste the time you don’t own distracting yourself with the things you can’t control or have forever? I am not saying don’t get the car, the house, pursue love if you wish…What I am saying is that if doing those things causes suffering or hinders you from having a meaningful life then maybe its time to consider how much importance you are placing on them. After all…they aren’t yours or in your control.
Lets also pull wisdom from Christianity. I often consider the story of Abram in the Bible. I won’t get into actual verses and give you the highlights of the story. So normally people consider the story as Abram to be the one where Abram nearly avoids sacrificing his son, Isaac, as was God’s command. However, prior to that Abram was hanging out at his pad at the ripe young age of 75 when God calls to him to pick up his life and family and travel to the promise land. Now Abram had a choice to make, either obey and risk losing the comfy life for travel and who knows what else or disobey and possibly ride the literal lightening delivered priority shipping from the Big G upstairs. Keep in mind this is the Old Testament, so God was a bit more of an active participant in the stories than in the New Testament. Well he chose to take that adventure…not because of the doom awaiting him if he didn’t but because he was called to it.
Now the Bible gives literal interpretation of God quite literally telling you to do something but if we could consider reality (Baptist ire engaged) and think that perhaps the calling was a feeling…a passion…an opportunity? Either way, Abram dared to do it and one could consider…that daring greatly doesn’t guarantee victory. That is true!!! but neither does staying where you are…and on that note…at the very least, choosing to risk it to get the biscuit puts you on a probability, big emphasis, A PROBABILITY, not the probability you are aiming for. So no, you could risk it all and perhaps get half way and settle on good enough…maybe you aim for that CEO seat but find yourself meeting the love of your life and settle for district manager. Is that really a fail? I don’t think so.
But what about that doom of disobedience…again lets move from the mystical and consider a more realistic consequence. The punishment could be regret or jealousy because someone else answered the calling and took the shot and made it. Maybe, from a more realistic approach you could say that God calls, not just Abram, but you to dare greatly on living a life of meaning and purpose or risk what you have to have a purpose and meaningful life that you won’t regret…even if you don’t end up where you thought you would be…you won’t have to sit there on that dismal bean bag chair regretting the moment you had the chance and you turned away.
Also lets talk Buddha, so one of the noble truth’s is that life has suffering. The reason I bring this up is this is a mention that your life will have low points and you will suffer, but would you prefer to suffer while doing something you believe is meaningful and provides you a sense of purpose? or would you rather suffer in a life that you chose because it was secure and predictable despite knowing you could be out there doing something you dreamed of. Now one thing Buddha mentions that may seem contradicting to what I mentioned in this paragraph was that it is also true that suffering comes from craving and craving a passion leads to dissatisfaction in the life you chose to live because of its comfortability. I would pose that one way you may consider this is that you could also make the claim that your attachment to comfort and security hinders you from living a right livelihood or seeking it.
So with all that said…Are you going to wait for the day that may never come or the breath just before your last to decide that now you are going to live well?
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