Like most people, I'm reluctant to discuss personal matters, but I take this rule very seriously—it's at the heart of my worldview and keeps me on the right path
"Almost everybody else will give you a pass—but the big problems begin when you give yourself a pass." - Great line. This takes great *courage* to execute.
This is the first time I have seen my worldview presented by someone else than me. It's a great relief to know that I'm not the only one who sees things like this. (I'm the weird one in my family.)
Thoughts of how everything is connected fill my head every day.
Thanks for posting about your 6 spheres. I'd love to read more of your thoughts.
I love how he says that a worldview has to be your own, not borrowed from another person. So many people want to find peace and enlightenment without doing any work themselves. We all know that's not possible. However, I still don't understand spirit. I'm almost 40 and I never have. In his little spirit triangle, he had faith at the top of it. For people like me who understand religion is complete nonsense, is "spirit" a hoax, or something people use to fill in the gaps they don't understand, a rock band with Jay Ferguson, or a crappy airline?
Who created all this? Why are we here? Where do we go after we die? If we had concrete answers to those questions, there wouldn't be hundreds of religions, just the truth. I love his rule of the six spheres; I just don't understand spirituality. Maybe I never will.
I remember the piece you wrote about Nick Drake. It stayed with me because of the compassion and humanity in your insights into a very talented artist who was not able to find his place in the world. Seeing your framework here shows where that piece came from.
Thank you, Ted. What you write seems kind of obvious to me - which I write not in depreciation, but more in surprise that anyone could take offence at your post. Anyone who hasn't worked this out for themselves is seriously flawed. But well done for exposing your values, for the human race does have a mean streak and it takes nerve to make a stand on anything that might be construed as "old fashioned values", "New Age" or "spiritual". I think this year is a time for making a stand for what is right because the human race currently seems confused and more than a little demented.
What a wonderful distraction on a Friday afternoon as the workweek winds down! To my benefit, this interrupts a (Teams) discussion I was having with my exceedingly literate VP of content (that's a modern-y title for one responsible for herding writers) about great fiction first lines. I say this to remind myself I'm kinda all right with where I am. The question (as I'm Ted's age) is how to best finish strong? Many blessings, few stresses (or I'm oblivious EDIT: except for relentless doom scroll over US political ... trends) but I do wake too early now and wonder where to focus the last 5-10 years of semi-fullspeed abilities. Seems like, at this point, my balance is pretty good. Do I pick a sphere for a last swing at the fences?
Thank you for making this free for all subscribers. I agree 100 percent with everything you had to say. I also made my own code of laws but I’ve always just thought it was the personality that I was born with.
Side note, your essay reminds a lot of a short book that I think is now out of print called a lazy man’s guide to enlightenment. I haven’t read it in long time but I think it has a lot in common with what you are saying.
I cannot thank you enough for both the humility and the generosity of your posts. They are artful. They are pastoral. In the noblest sense of that descriptor. They are exemplary of and facilitators of human flourishing. And, yessir! I believe that is A Thing and testify to the reality, elegance and excellence of that thing.
Your entries, whether educational, fanciful or confessional are golden and so much appreciated. Long may you run, sir!
This is wonderful as an ideal. But such an ideal can only be approached in extraordinarily fortunate circumstances. If one is fortunate to live in a time of peace and plenty where you can earn the daily necessities of life and have energy and resources left to pursue all of the others, you are truly fortunate. Historically, and globally, however, such conditions are rare. For so many people in so many times and places, circumstances have required them to put all their time and energy into one aspect of life, either for their own survival or for the survival of those they love. To be able to pursue a life of perfect balance of this kind is a matter of great good fortune. But both ordinary necessity and the wider moral good have often required people to put their time, their energy, and the devotion into one thing or another. What you describe here is a life of self-fulfillment. What so many have been called to, and so many are still called to today, is a life of self-sacrifice in which everything must be devoted to a single cause, for the sake of all.
The great practical metaphysicist, Dr. Alphonse M. Tatarunis, had a definition of Love that I think is quite tangible - though not mathematical - Love is Patience, Kindness, Forgiveness, Understanding, and Honesty. We all know precisely what each of these elements is. In this worldview even the materialist skeptic must concede.
It’s uncanny how very different people can stumble upon similar ideas. I refer to my version as ‘concentric circles’, and there are four.
1. Body and mind. This is all about me. What do I owe myself? And the watchword is: Health
2. Family and friends (only the very dearest). What do I owe them? The watchword is: Love
3. Neighbors, countrymen, all people, and even the animals. What do I owe them? The watchword is: Duty
4. God, the gods, or however you wish to frame what I’m gesturing at. What do I owe Him? The watchword is: Piety
Keeping these in balance is a challenge in the best of times, but they can be in outright conflict. Some of the deepest meditations in this are found in classical tragedy.
In my experience, when people debate right and wrong but seem to be taking past each other, often they have focused on different ’circles’.
"Almost everybody else will give you a pass—but the big problems begin when you give yourself a pass." - Great line. This takes great *courage* to execute.
This is the first time I have seen my worldview presented by someone else than me. It's a great relief to know that I'm not the only one who sees things like this. (I'm the weird one in my family.)
Thoughts of how everything is connected fill my head every day.
Thanks for posting about your 6 spheres. I'd love to read more of your thoughts.
Ted, never stop writing. Even the awkward stuff.
I love how he says that a worldview has to be your own, not borrowed from another person. So many people want to find peace and enlightenment without doing any work themselves. We all know that's not possible. However, I still don't understand spirit. I'm almost 40 and I never have. In his little spirit triangle, he had faith at the top of it. For people like me who understand religion is complete nonsense, is "spirit" a hoax, or something people use to fill in the gaps they don't understand, a rock band with Jay Ferguson, or a crappy airline?
Who created all this? Why are we here? Where do we go after we die? If we had concrete answers to those questions, there wouldn't be hundreds of religions, just the truth. I love his rule of the six spheres; I just don't understand spirituality. Maybe I never will.
I remember the piece you wrote about Nick Drake. It stayed with me because of the compassion and humanity in your insights into a very talented artist who was not able to find his place in the world. Seeing your framework here shows where that piece came from.
Thank you, Ted. What you write seems kind of obvious to me - which I write not in depreciation, but more in surprise that anyone could take offence at your post. Anyone who hasn't worked this out for themselves is seriously flawed. But well done for exposing your values, for the human race does have a mean streak and it takes nerve to make a stand on anything that might be construed as "old fashioned values", "New Age" or "spiritual". I think this year is a time for making a stand for what is right because the human race currently seems confused and more than a little demented.
"A man's got to have a code." - Omar, the unexpectedly moral center of "The Wire"
It’s a good six, nicely fleshed out. Thanks.
What a wonderful distraction on a Friday afternoon as the workweek winds down! To my benefit, this interrupts a (Teams) discussion I was having with my exceedingly literate VP of content (that's a modern-y title for one responsible for herding writers) about great fiction first lines. I say this to remind myself I'm kinda all right with where I am. The question (as I'm Ted's age) is how to best finish strong? Many blessings, few stresses (or I'm oblivious EDIT: except for relentless doom scroll over US political ... trends) but I do wake too early now and wonder where to focus the last 5-10 years of semi-fullspeed abilities. Seems like, at this point, my balance is pretty good. Do I pick a sphere for a last swing at the fences?
Thanks for this. Haters always gonna hate. HB is the good stuff.
Thanks from here also. This is a far cry from this world of blame that never takes any responsibility.
Thank you for making this free for all subscribers. I agree 100 percent with everything you had to say. I also made my own code of laws but I’ve always just thought it was the personality that I was born with.
Side note, your essay reminds a lot of a short book that I think is now out of print called a lazy man’s guide to enlightenment. I haven’t read it in long time but I think it has a lot in common with what you are saying.
I cannot thank you enough for both the humility and the generosity of your posts. They are artful. They are pastoral. In the noblest sense of that descriptor. They are exemplary of and facilitators of human flourishing. And, yessir! I believe that is A Thing and testify to the reality, elegance and excellence of that thing.
Your entries, whether educational, fanciful or confessional are golden and so much appreciated. Long may you run, sir!
This is wonderful as an ideal. But such an ideal can only be approached in extraordinarily fortunate circumstances. If one is fortunate to live in a time of peace and plenty where you can earn the daily necessities of life and have energy and resources left to pursue all of the others, you are truly fortunate. Historically, and globally, however, such conditions are rare. For so many people in so many times and places, circumstances have required them to put all their time and energy into one aspect of life, either for their own survival or for the survival of those they love. To be able to pursue a life of perfect balance of this kind is a matter of great good fortune. But both ordinary necessity and the wider moral good have often required people to put their time, their energy, and the devotion into one thing or another. What you describe here is a life of self-fulfillment. What so many have been called to, and so many are still called to today, is a life of self-sacrifice in which everything must be devoted to a single cause, for the sake of all.
The great practical metaphysicist, Dr. Alphonse M. Tatarunis, had a definition of Love that I think is quite tangible - though not mathematical - Love is Patience, Kindness, Forgiveness, Understanding, and Honesty. We all know precisely what each of these elements is. In this worldview even the materialist skeptic must concede.
It’s uncanny how very different people can stumble upon similar ideas. I refer to my version as ‘concentric circles’, and there are four.
1. Body and mind. This is all about me. What do I owe myself? And the watchword is: Health
2. Family and friends (only the very dearest). What do I owe them? The watchword is: Love
3. Neighbors, countrymen, all people, and even the animals. What do I owe them? The watchword is: Duty
4. God, the gods, or however you wish to frame what I’m gesturing at. What do I owe Him? The watchword is: Piety
Keeping these in balance is a challenge in the best of times, but they can be in outright conflict. Some of the deepest meditations in this are found in classical tragedy.
In my experience, when people debate right and wrong but seem to be taking past each other, often they have focused on different ’circles’.