Temperance/moderation: I suck and need to be better. less food. Less of everything.
Stay rational. Stay kind. Speak and do the uncomfortable when it is right.
I’m getting better. I didn’t yell, but I didn’t hide my frustration, either. I recovered quickly, but shouldn’t need to recover. I need to check my feelings of frustration sooner.
I need to start thinking of intrapersonal conflicts as a thing. Me today seems in conflict with me tomorrow, or next month. Temperance continues to be a problem, especially at night when I’m most tired, weak, and often lonely. I need to sleep better and stay in the house less.
Reason, temperance, courage, justice. Think, refrain, steadfast, and fair. Be equally as kind to tomorrow’s you and you are to others. He will be a person too.
Is it reasonable to expect that everyone know what I know? Of course not. Is it their fault? Unlikely, so don’t hate them. Can I expect to avoid coming across these people? No, I know that these people exist and that I will meet them. Am I angry at the clouds that bring rain on a weekend? No, I have no control over the weather and I expect some days to be wetter than others. Such is the way with other people. Reason, in this manner, is an umbrella.
Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. I like it; it is an easy exercise to dismiss most people’s poor choices as merely stupid if I’ve already done the foundational work of not holding them in contempt for their stupidity, and I instead remind myself that they are sadly ignorant. It helps disarm my misanthropy.
Two other good razors:
(1) Alder’s razor: If something cannot be settled by experiment or observation, then it is not worthy of debate
(2) Hitchens’ razor: That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
I watched Austin’s discomfort and anxiety this weekend at Bing; he struggles to bring himself the gumption to talk to a stranger. I get it, I don’t love it, either. It is something we need to overcome, however, to succeed and grow in life. Reason tells us that we will soon be forgotten and only a little courage is required. Such scenarios are low stakes practice to develop our courage when we really need it.
“So whatever you want to do, just do it … Making a damn fool of yourself is absolutely essential.”
Gloria Steinem
Think. Refrain. Steadfast. Fair. Be kind to tomorrow’s you
Running the office alone today and tomorrow. Get it right when you can. Get it wrong gracefully when you don’t.
There is great beauty in doing the right thing.
“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.” TS Eliot
If our heart and mind is distorted, so too is our perception of the world and our circumstance in it.
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Often times, the one thing that can prevent an argument (without simply walking away) is to talk to someone about how I am feeling, not what they are thinking or doing.
Long enough sleep tonight; when I’m tired I’m weak. When I’m weak, I binge.
A good reason to journal every day, even when I don’t feel like it:
“Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.”
Madeleine L’Engle
On enthusiasm:
- I don’t know how enthusiastic I get about things. I don’t get overly enthusiastic. Maybe I don’t want to be let down. Maybe excitement can overwhelm me. Still, enthusiasm seems to be forward thinking more than being present-minded. Perhaps that is false.
- Enthusiasm is only rational in the present tense, to do something enthusiastically is much healthier than enthusiastically looking forward to something in the future.
- Taking a view from above is trying to see and live in the present. Nothing in the future is assured. Hope for the future is far more reasonable than enthusiasm for it.
- It is defined as ‘intense enjoyment, interest, or approval by a person’. It is a feeling of excitement, a noun, a thing. It isn’t a trait or a characteristic of a person, so I can’t see it as something that should be sought after if willfully crafted.
- I don’t need to be enthusiastic to be prudent. Nor to exercise restraint, or be fair, or be courageous. Instead, enthusiasm is more closely associated with fervor, a lack of control and often of reason. It can be – but isn’t necessarily – a by product in getting “caught up in the moment”. In this manner of thinking, enthusiasm is an indifferent, and one that is dis-preferred more than preferred, but I can see an argument for both.