Today I will not dwell in the mistakes of the past. I will not do less than my best But I will not expect perfection. Today I will not be happy with mediocrity I will not make excuses for myself. But I will not demand the unattainable. Today I will not deny who I am I will not forget myself But I will not live for myself.
This is an essay I wrote last semester for my Modern and Postmodern Philosophy class. For Rousseau, historical progress only further removes man from his natural state of living. He argues that the cultivation of civilized studies weaken the natural virtues of men; in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, Rousseau writes, “our souls have become corrupted to the extent that our sciences and our arts have advanced towards perfection.” He cites Romans of old as saying, “Since the learned men began to appear among us, good people have slipped away.” Rousseau attributes this decline to the intentional pursuit…
There’s a lot I could say. I think this post is so delayed because whenever I think about writing I wonder where in the world I’ll start. I guess the logical place to start is where I am right now. And I’m actually in the lovely town of Auburn Alabama, enjoying the Austrian Economics Research Conference at the Mises Institute. Yes, I know you’re jealous. It is amazing. Seriously. I think we sometimes get really distracted by our circumstances in life. We get caught up in where we’re at and forget where we want to be. Sometimes we need to…
So to review…rebellion is not a negative thing, per se. Rebellion simply for the sake of rebellion is irrational. But rebellion which is inspired by a desire to improve, to solve a problem, to make this a better place…that kind of rebellion is necessary for the progress of humanity. In the last post I talked about the menace of mediocrity—being content with an ordinary life because that is what everyone else is doing. Now I want to discuss pragmatism, which, in my mind, is the most pernicious and pervasive philosophical error in our culture. “Pragmatism: An approach that assesses the truth…
I know I have already covered the topic of introversion/extroversion once, in my review of Susan Cain’s book. But since this is my blog, if I want to talk about it more, there’s no one stopping me, haha. There are just a lot of thoughts I have on this subject which I feel need to be said. Firstly, both introverts and extroverts have their own strengths and qualities. Introverts have a harder time because their strengths are less obvious. We all know that extroverts are great speakers. But introverts are good listeners. And if everyone is talking, who’s doing the listening?…
I’ve started on my next novel. I’ve thought about several different ideas over the past year or two, but none of them seemed to work quite right. So I finally came back to the idea that I’ve had for years now but never felt ready to tackle. Being a writer, I want to write about everything that I’m experiencing. As soon as I have an idea, I want to pour it out into a story. But I’ve learned that it is better to go at it slowly. Because memories become riper and deeper and richer with time. As I grow…
Fall is my favorite season for many reasons, one of which is that it always inspires me to write poetry. This is the result of several drafts over the past week or so… Leaves drift like golden confetti, Their skeletons rattling across concrete— Celebrating the slow decline of summer, sun, and life. Birds gather nervously, afraid to miss their Pilgrimage towards that glowing star. The sacrifice of burning leaves on alters to the sun Stain the air with pungent, smoldering ashes. Sunlight seeps through the brave remainder Of yellowed leaves still clinging To the memory of warmth. Cornstalks crackle with…
We all want to be happy, don’t we? In fact, in a way, we’re all somewhat hedonistic. We see happiness as the ultimate goal. We think this is the best that we can get in this life. There are so many people desperate for happiness that they will fill their bodies with drugs, legal and illegal, just to feel happiness again. Happiness is a beautiful thing, I don’t deny it. It is wonderful to be happy. But maybe we’re all too eager to silence the sorrow we inevitably face in this life. Because it is through sorrow that we discover…
I guess this post title was inevitable, considering that I’m listening to John Lennon’s Imagine as I type, and considering that the book I will be reviewing is called Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer, haha. I’m sorry it is so unoriginal, but I guess I’m not being very imaginative tonight. Warning: This isn’t going to be a completely proper book review (maybe that statement isn’t necessary since I don’t ever do proper book reviews anyways, haha). (Edit: As it turned out, I hardly even mentioned the book Imagine, so this post turned out to be even less of…
So it has been a long time, but as Pascal said, “the silence of these infinite spaces frightens me” so my fear of this dreadful silence drove me back. Actually…I felt rather guilty about having such good readers (at one point) and then dropping them so callously. I feel like I’m starting all over again, but that’s okay. And I also felt bad about putting so much time into this site and totally neglecting it. I had been something of a plugin junkie, so I’ve been dreading coming back and trying to clean up all my old plugins but it…
