A New Year about to Dawn.
I guess it should take most of a life time to define one's own philosophy from the various learnings and listenings and experiences of the time.
Some of this is based upon influences of society, and also some is based upon personal, individual perspectives, plus some radical, lurking variables.
It is hard to imagine a world, a society, a community, a family, in which most people arrive at similar conclusions or in most ways think the same way. I guess if we all did this, then we would appear simply as cogs in a machine.
I guess this is what disturbs me about the world, the society, the community and the family as it appears.
The purposes of life in these still early years of the 21st Century seem twofold: to consume the world completely, and then, through mortgage, to be consumed by the world completely, whilst caring less and less about the well being of others having a harder time.
I looked at my 'ten policies' for Australia should I wish to go into politics and I thought...yes, well, I deeply believe in these items and in this agenda. Then I thought...but does anyone else see things my way?
No. Does this mean that my notions are wrong or even right? No.
Then what is the value of these ideas nutted out over a long time?
Interesting point.
This reminds me of a particular difficult time, about ten years in my life, when I was prevented, by someone's great and resolute anger at me, from seeing my daughter. I was told that 1/3 of people are like this in the world...they will punish you for not meeting their expectations no matter what the laws or common senses say. Still, as a man, I did pretty well with that kind of oppression and made sure that my daughter knew who I was...more for her benefit than mine.
I was advised by a very wise person to, during the years of being separated from my daughter, to write to her each day and to each day send off these letters, gifts, notes, postcards to her.
At first hearing of this advice I said 'but she will never see these letters, notes, gifts or postcards from me. She will never know anything of this'.
My adviser said 'Of course, she won't know any of this...but you will know all of this.'
This was a good adviser.It is rare to find any in this world; a world so content with the consumer notion of 'closure' rather than with the human notion of life-long individual commitment to another person.
In this way care and human commitment prevails, unbought, unsold.
As for the impact on my daughter, she knows who I am. I always thought that it was good for a girl to know how her father is; and that she lives in a world that is not so harsh or narrow in terms of her development. As far as I know, she is a happy person.
As for the impact on me, as a father, and as a being, I know I did most things I possibly could do to enable her good development in this world.
For some reason this continues to make me feel quite young in my ageing...and quite young in thinking that the world is a pretty good place as long as you come to it with enough commitment to not know your limitations.
My philosophy is that we attain certain qualities of meaning through effort towards a good goal for the world, our society, our community, our family, and ourselves.
The place for bitterness regarding the life experience is thereby limited and subservient to real human progress, good thinking, and young meaning, in all its forms.
I did not gain strength or meaning from my life due to spiritual or religions dimensions at all, but rather through good advice, persistence, failure, abiding, and human reason and I believe these are the most important things...these are the notions that abide. The rest of the notions have already disappeared even before you get to them...and the rest thus conforms to the notions of existentialism postulated 500 years ago by Michel de Montaigne, the father of existentialism, and the inventor of the essay as a form of human communication.
This is my essay, my life is my brief essay.
Me: "Teacher. Have I learnt enough?"
Teacher: "Student, Have you learnt enough?"
Me: 'Mostly, but my notions are quite absurd to others.'
Teacher: 'Absurdity is the norm for human beings. At least you have been bothered by life enough to think about it.Please, continue.'
I guess it should take most of a life time to define one's own philosophy from the various learnings and listenings and experiences of the time.
Some of this is based upon influences of society, and also some is based upon personal, individual perspectives, plus some radical, lurking variables.
It is hard to imagine a world, a society, a community, a family, in which most people arrive at similar conclusions or in most ways think the same way. I guess if we all did this, then we would appear simply as cogs in a machine.
I guess this is what disturbs me about the world, the society, the community and the family as it appears.
The purposes of life in these still early years of the 21st Century seem twofold: to consume the world completely, and then, through mortgage, to be consumed by the world completely, whilst caring less and less about the well being of others having a harder time.
I looked at my 'ten policies' for Australia should I wish to go into politics and I thought...yes, well, I deeply believe in these items and in this agenda. Then I thought...but does anyone else see things my way?
No. Does this mean that my notions are wrong or even right? No.
Then what is the value of these ideas nutted out over a long time?
Interesting point.
This reminds me of a particular difficult time, about ten years in my life, when I was prevented, by someone's great and resolute anger at me, from seeing my daughter. I was told that 1/3 of people are like this in the world...they will punish you for not meeting their expectations no matter what the laws or common senses say. Still, as a man, I did pretty well with that kind of oppression and made sure that my daughter knew who I was...more for her benefit than mine.
I was advised by a very wise person to, during the years of being separated from my daughter, to write to her each day and to each day send off these letters, gifts, notes, postcards to her.
At first hearing of this advice I said 'but she will never see these letters, notes, gifts or postcards from me. She will never know anything of this'.
My adviser said 'Of course, she won't know any of this...but you will know all of this.'
This was a good adviser.It is rare to find any in this world; a world so content with the consumer notion of 'closure' rather than with the human notion of life-long individual commitment to another person.
In this way care and human commitment prevails, unbought, unsold.
As for the impact on my daughter, she knows who I am. I always thought that it was good for a girl to know how her father is; and that she lives in a world that is not so harsh or narrow in terms of her development. As far as I know, she is a happy person.
As for the impact on me, as a father, and as a being, I know I did most things I possibly could do to enable her good development in this world.
For some reason this continues to make me feel quite young in my ageing...and quite young in thinking that the world is a pretty good place as long as you come to it with enough commitment to not know your limitations.
My philosophy is that we attain certain qualities of meaning through effort towards a good goal for the world, our society, our community, our family, and ourselves.
The place for bitterness regarding the life experience is thereby limited and subservient to real human progress, good thinking, and young meaning, in all its forms.
I did not gain strength or meaning from my life due to spiritual or religions dimensions at all, but rather through good advice, persistence, failure, abiding, and human reason and I believe these are the most important things...these are the notions that abide. The rest of the notions have already disappeared even before you get to them...and the rest thus conforms to the notions of existentialism postulated 500 years ago by Michel de Montaigne, the father of existentialism, and the inventor of the essay as a form of human communication.
This is my essay, my life is my brief essay.
Me: "Teacher. Have I learnt enough?"
Teacher: "Student, Have you learnt enough?"
Me: 'Mostly, but my notions are quite absurd to others.'
Teacher: 'Absurdity is the norm for human beings. At least you have been bothered by life enough to think about it.Please, continue.'
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