I have gathered my best aphorisms I have written over the years-- and some by others. Fitting them into themes has revealed some patterns in my thought that I wouldn't have seen if they weren't put together. Realize that nearly all of these sayings were written at different times.
The first theme this week is "Meaning Via Agape," where I talk the way we socially construct meaning, especially if we are to live our best lives. Next I talk about "Finance and Frugality," which are the vital tools necessary to free oneself from the darker forces mentioned in previous installments. Lastly, I finish with "Art and Literature." Very pleasant pass-times indeed.
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Meaning Via Agape
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I had to live through the deconstruction of simple, unhurried, sacred beauty and all I got were these lousy interesting times.
"It's the thought that counts" is an expression that was almost certainly created within the context of a family, and it only seems to work in that context. The fact that so many people today spend so little time or attention in the domestic sphere makes the saying seem to ring totally false.
Learning how to set up boundaries with those you help is altruism's better part.
It is not enough to leave t.v. (and anti-social media). You must have t.v. (and anti-social media) leave you.
”Now that we can do anything, we must do less.” Ruben Anderson
An important difference between a cult and a religion is that a religion works to make other generations both possible and successful in the wider world.
There is enough beauty and wonder to go around. There cannot be enough results.
Reason operates on the Faith that it has all the information. (Faith often reasons that it doesn't).
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Finance and Frugality.
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One of my biggest financial tips: don’t pay the seem-like-a-normal-person tax.
The revolution will be upcycled . . . and then modular. Or it won't be much of revolution, now will it?
Inside of consumerism, "sufficient luxury" is an oxymoron. Outside of consumerism, you can live a meaningful life.
I never get V.I.P. treatment. But a solid majority of the time I get minimally acceptable treatment. Globally speaking, this makes me extremely fortunate.
Possible rule to blunt consumerism: after you have secured food, shelter, heating/cooling, only buy things that you will do at least three hours of work with.
Identity is deeper to people than happiness. Consumerism exploits this by sandblasting our organic, healthy identities, so we are left struggling to try to fashion them on our own. We try to buy them, which is good for profits in the short-run, but is a source of system-threatening internal contradictions in the long run.
My advocacy of frugality is based on personal freedom and the quality of life, not signaling. The help to the environment is a bonus.
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Art and Literature
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If “show me, don’t tell me” was always correct writing advice, then Shakespeare would never have had asides. And Hamlet would have never said “to be, or not to be;" he just would have done. . . or not.
The literati: by pretending to have read everything, they ended up not reading anything. And now they don't even pretend to read.
As Hume lifted Kant from his dogmatic slumbers, Captain Beefheart lifted me from my slumbers of normality. And so far, the results have been lasting.
"History is an art, like the other sciences" Veronica Wedgood.
If living around beautiful old works is so edifying, if walkable towns so important, if there is a certain ineffable dolce vita to all things Italian, why did they invent fascism?
If the spoilers alone were enough to ruin something you were going to watch, then it wasn't worth watching.
In these debauched times, the ability to read an unassigned book is potent signal of the tenderness, openness, and meta-cognition that is necessary (but not sufficient) to understand anything important.
To put a positive spin on the last quote, the test wouldn't work so well if our times weren't so debauched.
If you can see through G.K. Chesterton's work to know where he is engaging in sophistry and where he is being brilliant, then you are well on your way to fruitful explorations of the world.
