What is “life?” And “living?”
Sure, yes, it’s oxygen, food, water, mating, sunshine, sleep, relationships, stability, and more.
But, what is “life?”
What is a “lived life?”
Is one where we have avoided strife and struggle?
Taken the path of least resistance?
Sat on the couch to play Call of Duty and to watch pornography?
To “play it safe?”
To avoid pain — rejection, risk, and sadness — to secure just another moment of comfort?
No…
No, no, no.
That’s surviving.
Keeping your head down, excessive masturbation, scraping pennies and dimes, and abusing substances to stay numb is no life at all.
It’s no way to live.
Avoiding pain is what animals do. They hedge all bets and most live long for their kinds, but do you think they live for much more than the next lap of water?
The next mating season?
Finding the next rained-upon scrap?
No, they do not.
Are you just a dumb animal? Avoiding that pain and rejection to feel good just another moment?
No, you are not.
Living is different than living.
Know where you are.
Identify the problems.
Create systems that eliminate or reduce them.
Don’t avoid pain. Don’t avoid rejection.
Don’t die unfulfilled and miserable.
Live.
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”