Live Nobly

 

(Editor's note:  The InterWeb is back up and running, so responses should be less delayed.)

The Ancient Greeks had an intellectual concept called arete.  It meant "excellence", and it was the idea of the realization of one's purpose or function to the highest degree possible.  It was living one's life to the greatest potential that one could, being the best and most effective that one could to achieve a result.  And this accomplishment was to readily available for all to see; in that sense the Ancient Olympics and other Greek Games were an example of arete, as was fulfilling one's purpose - thus, the death of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae was also an example of arete.

Too often I have let myself off the hook by living up to less than my full potential or function.  Very occasionally it is because of a justifiable reason; more often it feels like simply laziness on my part.  Living up to all that one is capable of - and that is a sliding scale of course, based on the individual - involves work and effort, and such work and effort that is ultimately driven by ourselves internally.  People can guide us or lead us, but ultimately it has to come from within ourselves.  We are the architects of our efforts, if not always of our results.

And - at least for me - I know when I have made the ultimate effort - and I know when I have done less than I could have or been satisfied with less than my best.  I also know when I have been "putting in the work" as the saying goes, even if the apparent result is less than I hoped for.  

Why I settle too often endlessly bothers me.

But the reality is that we, at any moment, can choose to live better lives, to live towards a sense of arete.  And we should encourage ourselves - and each other to do so.

After all, as Seneca points out, it is something - unlike Death - that we can control.