What, are You Stupid or Something?

Daily Meditation #115 — 6/17/2022

They really don’t “Make em like they used to,” do they?

“Why won’t you ever learn,” your mother sighs to herself in a tone of exasperation and love as she rubs your back.

You thought he was “The One,” for you…
Just like the last one.
And the one before that.

Humans lead relatively long lives (or so we perceive them to be long), but one an infinite timeline, we are at any one point at any time…and even more insignificant.

However, 50, 70, or 90 odd years isn’t even a realistic temporal centimeter which we would use to measure human history!

Which is why three fundamental things are important.

Firstly, that we should meditate on our successes and — arguably even moreso — on our failures. We should learn from our experiences.

Secondly, we need to deeply and daily meditate on death. Without an appreciation and respect for the most certain of all things in our lives, we carry an unnecessary lead anchor around our neck — fear. We have discussed death myriad times: Here, here, and here are a few of the 6 separate articles.

Thirdly, and most important today, we must “Stand on the shoulders of giants.” This is to say we must not only learn from our experiences, but also must meditate on history to learn from others’ experiences.

Many of you are certainly thinking, “LOL well I ain’t got time to read history and biographies. How boring. Gimme my reruns of The Office.”

But, think about it:

If you wanted to learn how to speak Chinese, what would you do?
Get a book.
Watch Friends in Chinese.
Meet Chinese people.
Hired a teacher.
Enjoy free YouTube instructions.

You would chase down and make time here or there to make Chinese part of your experience.

Learning from others’ experiences isn’t much different.
This is why it’s so important to listen to elders, sometimes. To read books on it or watch history. To take the time to review the past.

History doesn’t repeat, but it certainly rhymes, as they say.

Learning skills shows you ways to live. History and philosophy show you how to live.

Which giant’s shoulders are you most curious to stand upon?

Follow for daily philosophical meditations.

These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”