Sometimes life screams at you. Sometimes it dwells in the background; the netherworld of your soul.
I
am
happy
I do
not have
eudaimonia
Aristotle's Ethics
I believe in the here and the now. I know that this instant, aided by a perception of the past and future, is the only instant that will ever exist. It is eternal, and I know that I must sieze it. The fact that I don't is a savage hypocrisy. I was fortunate enough to have a show-not-tell professor in college, and if I came away with one thing it was an understanding of Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia. I'm going to quote from the very well done writeup here by saying that eudaimonia is when an organism fulfills those capacities for action by acting in accordance with its nature. My professor put it a different way. It's when your actions act directly with the true desires of your heart and the true hopes of your mind. There is no doubt, no indecision. The entire organism is running at it's highest potential.
The Mezzanine
I was at a Squarepusher show at The Mezzanine in the City, and while the overload of the
sound system absolutely killed the complexity of the music, a stranger slipped a note into my friend's pocket. It
wasn't a hotel-room-key kind of note, but rather a I-like-the-color-of-your-soul kind of note. She was having a party/barbecue/potluck/rave/get-together at her place the following weekend and was wondering if we
would like to attend. What!? A bunch of strangers getting together to do god-knows-what with god-knows-who in an area of town I've never visited!? Sure! We'll be there with bells on.
The Party
THe BE ll dOe s NOT wOr k
cAlL uP to be LeT i n
Enter the kindly Asian gentleman from behind us who obviously knows the host. I only mention that he's Asian because he has that traditional-looking long-mustache-that-flows-into-a-beard look, which is completed by his perfectly round glasses. Luckily a fellow party-patron is coming down the stairs with a smile on her face and lets us into the party. A
sumptuous feast of kebab, grilled-bananas, vegeterian delights and coolers full of assorted beers greet our entrance.
The crowd is all smiles that bob and weave to the rhythm of the reggae pouring from the speaker adorned iBook. With much ado
about everything we eventually are accosted by the spiky-blue-haired bandit, Robin Hood. She is all smiles and likes to steal
our personalities and give them to the poor but concise world of the ists. Turns out he's a doubt-ist
and I'm a dimensional-ist. I like to take that to mean I'm multi-faceted, but I know I'm a doubt-ist too.
The Dude Abides
I watch The Big Lebowski and think, damn, now that's the philosophy for me! But like communism, it's really only good on paper or film as the case may be.
- I want Will to Power
- I want to leave inspiration in my wake
- I want my actions to be in literal harmony with my soul
- I want to choke hypocrisy with a piano-wire
- I don't want to give in to addiction
- I don't want to leave chaos in my wake
- I don't want my actions to be knee-jerk
- I don't want apathy to choke me with a piano-wire
I desire Eudaimonia