210621 What I learned in my studies this morning

Music in the air, 

Notes of harmony and truth 

Floating through my mind. 

Daily Stoic:

I walk sometimes. Mostly for the exercise, but there's no small part of taking time to think involved in my decisions to go out. 

Whether it's listening to an audiobook (currently: Happy, Why more or less everything is absolutely fine, by Derren Brown), contemplating my life, planning for upcoming events, or spending time with my son if he chooses to join me, walking clears my head of the innumerable distractions in my world. Simply getting away from other people and my immediate responsibilities refreshes my soul for continuing on. 

Today's Meditation:

From Happy, Why more or less everything is absolutely fine, by Derren Brown

From A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine:

Chapter 19: On Becoming a Stoic — Start Now and Prepare to be Mocked

Today's culture is rife with calls to "fix" what makes us unhappy through the mechanism of the State. We should, they tell us, vote or exhort or protest or cancel or somehow try to change the world rather than change ourselves.

It's an enchanting idea. It puts us under a spell, believing that someone else is at fault and, if we can just identify the proper person to blame, all can be made right in the world.

Poppycock. 

The people flogging such ideas do so because they will gain something by it. Perhaps it's a media figure who will become more popular if you buy into this and s/he'll sell more books or can charge more for commercials on their talk show. Maybe it's a politician who will be (re)elected or will "score points" against The Other Side™️ if you follow their advice. Perchance it is someone bucking for A Cause who will gain influence when you join their March Against XXXXXXX.

What none of them will mention is that their preferred behavior will do nothing to help make your life better, more meaningful, or more serene.

Why? Because every single one of them is promising happiness based on externals.

If you propose that maybe, juuuuust maybe, they might find it easier to live a happy life by focusing internally and figuring out how to be satisfied with simpler desires, you become a target for ire out of proportion to your "transgression." 

Perhaps they will call you naive or tell you that "XXXXXXX is too important." Maybe they'll just call you selfish or explain that real happiness is found by changing the world instead of yourself.

Whatever tack they take, you have a choice to make: do you want believe that the most recent fad / trend is your key to happiness? Or do you want to believe that wisdom which has helped innumerable people for literal millennia might be more effective?

Make your choice.