Essentialism (XVI): The Uncomfortable Act Of (Not) Choosing: Addendum

 After writing yesterday's post on Essentialism, I had opportunity to speak with my friend Rainbow.

For context, Rainbow has been a friend for just over twenty years now (something like six jobs ago), and as a friend of that long with a friendship that expanded beyond the acquaintances of work that we have so often, she has seen and knows enough about my life and my personality that she has both context and background for the discussions that we have.  As a result, she is a wonderful sounding board for my thoughts and ideas (some of which, to be fair, are indeed harebrained).

During our conversation, I brought up the fact that I was going through this Essentialism project (as that is what is seems to have become), I mentioned yesterday's revelation to myself that I was simply still at the point that while I could identify "Essential" things pretty clearly, I had pulled back from identifying something as a foremost Essential.  And that it bothered me for a reason I could not define.

Her response was "Maybe that is because it no longer serves the same purpose".

---

Over the course of my life, I have started and stopped a great many things.  Oftentimes that stoppage simply seems to happen:  one day I am just "done" with a thing.  In that case, the paraphernalia often disappears soon after (once or twice too quickly).  Why, I asked myself (and Rainbow) does this happen?

One reason can simply be that I have nothing else that is interesting to me in the subject or hobby or task; that I have done what I am likely to do.  The second, somewhere more concerning, is that there is more I could do - but it requires an element of effort and dedication that I will not commit to.  Viewed in this light, the question becomes "Why am I giving these things up?"

That "Why" becomes the operative interrogative - and to be fair, something that I have seldom asked of myself when I have discontinued a thing.

The second question, of course, is the purpose that any thing serves.

I tend to be a person that pours more meaning into subjects or tasks than they may merit.  Part of that is still due to the eight year old inside of me that believes that being novel and pleasing people is incredible important - and often in the past my activities have all had that aspect of "Wow, you know/do that?", because as an introvert and nerd and socially awkward child and teenager, this is how you find your way with people.  Part of it can be that I am looking for some deeper meaning out of something that is not designed to provide it. And in some cases, I simply do things because I have done them for a long time.

Moving, of course, upset that last parameter.

---

For the things you "identified", asked Rainbow, will they serve the purpose they have?  Or do you need to look at re-examine them?

I gave the matter some thought with her verbally on the phone.  In every instance, I still believed that I had things to learn or do in them, even if it required effort beyond what I tend to dedicate to such things.  

That is fine, she suggested.  But maybe there is no need to commit in such a way to any thing like that yet.  Just continue doing what you are doing, but do it with a sense of being open to things changing or morphing in importance or even something new presenting itself.

That is why friends such as Rainbow are so valuable. They help me to see things that I would not have otherwise seen.

Essentialism (XVI): The Uncomfortable Act Of (Not) Choosing

  For the last three months, we have been walking through Greg McKeown's initial proposal and thought processes around this idea that his proposes as Essentialism:

- That the Essentialist is looking to find the convergence of three questions:  "What am I passionate about?', "What am I good at"; and "What fills a significant need in the world?";

- That Essentialism incorporates the principles of Less but Better, Pursing Less, and Living a Life that really matters;

 - That Essentialists understand they have both the power and responsibility to choose (or other people and the world will choose for us) but that within that power lies the fact that while they can choose anything they cannot choose everything and that everything they choose is a trade off for something they did not choose;

- That Essentialists take the time and energy to consider those choices wisely through carving out the time to explore, exploring thoroughly and with the abandon of a child and looking not just beneath the surface of their lives as they engage in these matters, and ensuring they have their minds "right" through needed rest.

And then, of course, they have to Select, or make a choice.

It seems only fair, as I am recording my thoughts about all of this, that I, too, should engage in the process as well.

---

I am, and have always been, at best an awkward chooser.  Some of that stems from the fact that I just have a wide variety of interests (and I do not think that McKeown argues per se against wide interests, just about the investment of time in them).  Some of that stems - as long time readers know - from the fact that I am often more concerned about what I will miss than what I will gain, a sort of early Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) before such a term was coined.

And yet, if I am going to be intellectually consistent about this, I have to make a choice as well.

As you might imagine, there has been a lot of writing and thinking going on in the background as I have gone through this process.  Part of that is simply my nature; part of that is trying, at least, to take what I am writing about seriously.

---

The final list came down into two large buckets:  Iai, with accompanying emphasis on physical training and the Japanese Language, and a bucket which might be called "Study of the Classicat to Byzantine world (and Anglo-Saxon England)" for lack of a more catchy phrase.  There are a couple of one-offs there as well - writing (of course), and the various small scale food preparation I do, and some form of art (in my case, harp). 

I thought earlier this week I had come to a decision.  "Thought", of course, being the operative phrase.

---

And then, of course, I was reminded of a verse, a verse I have written this very year: "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me."  That sounds a whole heck of a lot like "Maybe you do not make that ultimate decision".

As a result, this original post has been re-written.

Am I any closer to any kind of decision on Essentials?  I am - as demonstrated in the list above.  I know the areas that I am considering, or at least that are within my power to consider in that I am in some form or fashion good at them and I enjoy them.  The most significant contribution to the world?

That lies a bit beyond my sight or grasp at the moment, leaving me only the options to pray, watch, and continue forward.

The Collapse CXCI: The Peloponnesian War

06 November 20XX+1

My Dear Lucilius,

This morning, at our now regular breakfast consisting of ½ a cup of grains, a handful of dried berries, and some kind of herbal tea which I cannot identify by taste, Pompeia Paulina asked me about civil wars.

It was an unexpected and odd question coming from my wife. Yes, she is well read and we share some (but not all) subjects of reading together, but she has never before asked about that specific subject or genre.

I knew a bit, I replied. Followed by “But most of my knowledge is about civil wars long ago”.

---

Modern civil wars never interested me, even back in the day when we could see them on our screens nightly if we so desired. Part of it was the fact that it was not just an entertaining five minute action sequence in a movie; it was reality. The other was the fact that depending on one’s opinions, even a not-so-recent event such as the American Civil War could result in a re-fighting of the entire campaign by people whose great grandparents were not alive at the time.

And so my interests and knowledge lay safely in the past, insulated by centuries and lack of passions by the modern world.

---

Of the books here, she asked, did I have any worth reading on the subject? I know you will be surprised to hear that I had one or two. The best, I told her, was The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides the son of Olorus.

I have others of course – the works of Diodorus Siculus and Xenophon’s Hellenica which cover the same period, and Appian’s The Civil Wars and Caesar’s The Civil Wars and half a dozen Roman authors that covered the same ground. But Thucydides’ work remains the best.

Why, she asked.

Thucydides was not precisely “The Father of History”; that title falls to Herodotus but perhaps only because he wrote a bit sooner – in my opinion Thucydides was the better writer. And it was because of that better writing – that actual attempt to gather facts and get the gist of speeches correct, let alone his personal experience in the War itself that made him more engaging.

It is a simple story I told her, as old as time: two entities that once were close but over time drifted apart to the point that they began encroaching on one another’s perceived strategic interests; in some ways no different than human relationships. One argument leads to another, which leads to action, which leads to a point (it is quite clear in the text) where the fork in the road for peace or war is clearly seen, and war is chosen.

Like most wars, I said, both sides assumed that it would be over after a season or even a few years, as most wars of the age were. No-one predicted it would go on for 27 years and result in the effective destruction of the Classical Greek world: the Athenian Empire would find itself shorn of its greatness and its empire and became one among many Greek City-States, the Spartan state (now the Spartan Hegemony) essentially becoming everything the Spartan state never intended to be and collapsing a mere 30 years later into a backwater rump state with a proud history but denuded of territory and manpower and everything that had made Sparta Spartan.

It was, I said, a very clear discussion of the folly of humans and ability to destroy everything they valued in pursuit of a goal they thought they wanted. Over 27 years, the old Classical Greek polity was destroyed as war went from the traditional short struggles of hoplite warfare to total war, where cities were destroyed, populations slain or enslaved, and horrors perpetuated.

All in pursuit of a power which would, a little over 60 years later, slip forever from their grasp with the rise of their neighbor Macedon to the North.

My favorite quote, I told her, was from early in the work, Book I, where Archidamas, Eurypontid King of the Spartans, tells the Spartan assembly “If you take something on before you are ready for it, hurry at the beginning will mean delay at the end….’Slow’ and ‘cautious’ can equally well be ‘wise’ and ‘sensible’”.

She laughed at that. It sounds a lot like you, she said.

Maybe it does sound like me, Lucilius. But it troubles me that even in thinking about that work, the parallels lay everywhere around me.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

2025 Switzerland/Germany: Basel From Above

The city of Basel in Switzerland sits directly on the Rhine River . It finds itself in a position where, although in Switzerland, it is very close to both the French and German borders (in fact, the airport which serves Basel is technically located in France).  

The view, if you can find it, is glorious.

Looking east, back towards Switzerland:

Looking North, towards Germany:

Looking West, towards France:

2025 Switzerland/Germany: Flying High

 On my trip to Switzerland and Germany this February, a thing happened which has not happened for a long time:  I could fly business class (mostly because it was more than four hours long).  The last time this happened was around 2002, when I was flying back and forth to Europe monthly for business.

I know what you are thinking:  "Ah TB, what a sacrifice."  I am here to stand in that gap for my readers.

Seat upon arrival:

Fancy plug and "essentials" kit:

Entertainment screen.  For these long flights, I find tend to catch up on "movies I have not seen in the past year".

Dinner Menu:

White wine. Real glass:

Nifty reading lights:

Hot towel for hand and face wiping.  These seem almost ubiquitous now, where before they were only on Japanese flights.

The "lay flat" seating arrangement.  This is an amazing thing - for one of the first times ever, I got actual hours of sleep (instead of short minutes):

Pre-dinner snack:

Dinner:

Dessert, which was a cheese plate.  I wish cheese plates would catch on more.  They are delicious.

Breakfast:

Reading Entire Books

 

Sometime within the last month, I read a link concerning the fact that modern high school and college students were struggling with the concept of reading an entire book during the course of a semester (it was probably FOTB (Friend Of This Blog) Eaton Rapids Joe; he tends to find such things).  The concept of reading an entire book, as I recall it, was genuinely stressful to the student in question:  how, they wondered, could they be expected to read an entire book (instead of excerpts).

I would like to say I was shocked by the article.  I was perhaps, surprised, but not shocked.

The decline of the ability to concentrate is neither new nor novel; likely it has been decried even long before I was born.  But our societal lurch towards electronic media of all types, combined with a declining expectations, has accelerated the issues.

I suppose to be fair, I have always been a reader and so reading entire books has never been a problem. And I understand that there are people that struggle mightly in this area due to dyslexia.  But I suspect that this is not the population that we are talking about.  It is about people that genuinely feel they cannot - and should not - have to read an entire book.

After all, our information all comes in easy to digest bits and bytes:  Short electronic communications.  Animated videos that explain things in colours and pictures.  Excerpts of a paragraph in length, followed immediately by an explanation.

Gone are the days of having to struggle through gaining information simply by reading or working out problems, where the text contained within it all the information needed to answer the question - but one needed to get out that information from the text, not just have it presented without the effort of finding it.

What does this lead to?  Beyond just a population that cannot function without things been presented in a simple (or simplistic form), it leads to a population that cannot keep its attention focused long enough to accomplish much of anything.  And anything worth accomplishing takes time and effort.

Add to that the idea that the excerpting of books and information reinforces the general sense of being in a hurry and rushing (two things I had never thought of, but certainly true), and it becomes even more critical that we encourage people to read books.  Not just for themselves, but for the very nature of a functional society.

I cannot say it better than the original meme:  Be countercultural.  Read an entire book.

A Year Of Humility (XVII): Self-Praise

 

Of the many struggles I have had over the years with people I have followed, those that praise themselves is not one of them.

Were you to quiz me on this, I fear I could not come up with a really logical answer as to why that is.  It certainly was never a conscious decision on my part.  It is not as if I have not know people that were that way - even in the times before social media, there were plenty of them.  And while I am a fully socially functioning introvert, even I have been aware that I have to "interact" with people.

And yet, self-praisers are not something that have ever attracted me.  In fact, it is something I have found rather repellent.

Again, I cannot fully express to you why this is.  Perhaps it is just the self-centered nature that such conversations seem to become:  all things are bent back around the the individual and what they have done like light vainly trying to escape a black hole.  Perhaps it is the fact that those that often or always praise themselves often seem to have a pretty skewed view as to what their "contributions" have actually been.  Perhaps it is simply that one-sided conversations about one's self are not dialogues but rather monologues - and most of those not nearly as well written as one by Shakespeare.

And yet, I am conscious - oh, so very conscious - that I have the same tendency as well.

The sign that this is usually taking hold in my own life is that I spend the time someone else is speaking to formulate my own answer.  I do not "hear" them, other than as a foil to my own next response.  Another sign is in the subtle physical signs that indicate that someone has started to check out of the conversation.

Another, of course, is simply that I listen to myself and all I hear coming out of my own mouth, to quote a country song, is "What about me?  What about I?"

God cannot flow where the pipes are stuck up with the blockage of my own pride.

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity said it perhaps most elegantly:

"Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble person he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.  Probably all you will think of him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.  If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily.  He will not be thinking about humility; he will not be thinking about himself at all."