Personal Philosophies
In middle age my penchant for finding a personal philosophy of life is bearing fruit.
I've long been reflecting on the positive emotional benefits of work. Not work one does as an employee necessarily, just that work that has meaning or purpose for the worker themselves. I developed the notion that "through work we gain freedom". For me it captured an idea that through work we gain confidence, maintain health and provide for our individual needs. Just recently I read the following in Tilman's Greenland book: "Strenuousness is the immortal path and sloth is the way of death". Slightly more dramatic than my own, but apt if we define death broadly as personal esteem, life-purpose and personal motivation and our creative being.
Now I am working on an observation of the ways in which people claim moral worth to justify their actions. I note a speech by Northern Territory's ex-Chief Minister Clair Martin, justifying changing laws to allow Xstrata Mining Corp. to reroute a river sacred to local Aboriginal dreaming, on "conservation" grounds. Yes, it could well have been a bald-faced lie, but also a grab to portray one's actions as redeeming.
I've long been reflecting on the positive emotional benefits of work. Not work one does as an employee necessarily, just that work that has meaning or purpose for the worker themselves. I developed the notion that "through work we gain freedom". For me it captured an idea that through work we gain confidence, maintain health and provide for our individual needs. Just recently I read the following in Tilman's Greenland book: "Strenuousness is the immortal path and sloth is the way of death". Slightly more dramatic than my own, but apt if we define death broadly as personal esteem, life-purpose and personal motivation and our creative being.
Now I am working on an observation of the ways in which people claim moral worth to justify their actions. I note a speech by Northern Territory's ex-Chief Minister Clair Martin, justifying changing laws to allow Xstrata Mining Corp. to reroute a river sacred to local Aboriginal dreaming, on "conservation" grounds. Yes, it could well have been a bald-faced lie, but also a grab to portray one's actions as redeeming.
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