On Crafting and Pursuing Purpose

and maybe keep in mind, too, as we're starting this group, like our first group discussion. Once again, it can be about the questions. It could be a question itself. You could draw our attention to it. And, or it could also be a quote from the bibliotherapy, which once again, put a number, feel free to elaborate, or just draw our attention to it. I'll elaborate a little bit, and we'll see how we feel, all right? And just quickly, Patrice, would you mind just for the sake of helping everyone out in the class? And feel free to say no, if we're recording the session, or would you prefer not to do that? You could put in the chat, too, yes or no, if you would prefer that. OK, great. So yeah, we'll keep going then. I just want to make sure I ask everybody. So cool, let's talk about this. Somebody, start us off in the chat, or out loud, what question, what quote, how are we applying it? Maybe what do we get from the first style? Let's say roughly 20 minutes of the meditation, then bibliotherapy. We're doing great, so let's finish strong, I believe in us. We have a few minutes left, let's go. What do we get? It could also even be, especially because this is our first one, maybe a general reflection on how the process went, right? So did you enjoy working through the questions for 10 minutes? Did you find that there was something meaningful about the-- so Carmilla, so how straightforward he is in Seneca, right? Yeah, so I want to think that's a great point. And would you maybe want to highlight one of the quotes or a couple of the quotes that drew that response out of you, or what about the writing made you feel that way? Yeah, so he's pretty blunt about that, right? So number one, is that what you're thinking about? We should decide what we want and abide by the decision. So that is, I think, as you're saying, a very straightforward remark. And as we saw with the questions from the on-purpose chapter, a lot of those questions in the meditation are getting us to think about what we should do, what we want. This idea of vision of the self, that is a desire of sort of driven conversation. I mean, we want to be careful around desire. OK, we want to keep short, sorry. We want to make sure we keep it balanced, right, with some gratitude, which essentially gratitude, for me, is desire for what's in front of us, right? Desire as desire is usually a future driven way of thinking or feeling, right? But to desire what's in front of us, that to me, just being grateful for it. I want what I have right now to me is that's the form of gratitude, if not actually gratitude itself. But I think with even the title of this section, it's on crafting and pursuing purpose. So the craft and pursue, I think, does ultimately ask that, at least to some degree, return a gaze to the future. We have a whole chapter, as I said, on living in the moment, because I also think that if we look too much at the future and/or we look at the future in the wrong way, it can definitely plague us, right? But we're talking about crafting, pursuing. There's some degree to which you want to think about the future there. So when he's saying, think about what you want in the moment, think about that, right? Again, projecting it not only to the future, but also maybe to the immediate, or as much as that's even possible, right? And then that real key there is, to me, is that abiding. So how do we make sure we abide? That's philosophy. To give you a very simple and practical example of that, if you're not checking in with yourself every day, at the end of the day, to make sure you do what you had to do, you might be opening yourself up to misopportunities. You might be opening yourself up to not abiding by what you think you actually want. So even the idea of you think you want, right, do we really want what we want? It's an interesting question, right? Or as we said with Epic Titus earlier, are we maybe pursuing stuff in life that isn't really coming from a place of personal desire, but it's something that we think we need to do. Or something we think we just have to do. Be very careful with that is also what he's saying here. Define what you want for yourself. Define your purpose for yourself. We'll work on that with Ikigai next class, right? Characterize it. OK, now we have to-- once again, we have to live it. So in order to abide by that decision, that involves turning our thinking and feeling into acting. And that is served by practices that make sure we stick to our path. We define our general sense of a direction, I think, as the healthiest, right? Then maybe we have some small destinations along the way, all of which we have to define for ourselves. The abiding is that getting up every day and doing it. Then once again, it folds back into philosophy when we check up on ourselves, we examine our actions, we examine what we've done with our day, with our week, with our month to make sure we abide by it. Then we create systems to make that abiding as effective as it can be, right? And yeah, I mean, he's challenging us. And that's a great word too, Carmelo. A lot of these quotes are essentially a challenge, right? Some of it is, for example, number five, right? The vision of great achievements summons us and uplifts us and challenges us, right? One of the reasons why having a mentor, I think, is so powerful, or having more than one mentor, is they've achieved something that for us is, you know, we haven't done it yet. And it does a greatness to it for us. So when we're around mentors, especially those that are, you know, good at being mentors, they teach us, they guide us, they listen to us, and they uplift us. And then hopefully we do the same thing for others, right? But that idea too is that a part of that vision of achievement is that it does, it summons and challenges, right? And a moment when I mentioned the idea of setting goals along the way and having maybe a general direction and a vision that's compelling, right? That's number six. When you're traveling on a road, there must be an end, but when a stray, your wanderings are limitless. So the end, again, perhaps we can wrap with the idea that there's only one true end, right? That's death. So up until death, we can be always pursuing, you know, once again, ongoing. That being said, we should have some goals, right? We could have healthy relationships to goal setting. That's what it's saying here too. Your life has to have a direction. When we look at Plato's K, we can kind of examine like, where do we get a sense of direction while it's from society? We could argue that being said, we can work too. I, you know, this is maybe hopeful or aspirational, maybe even naive, right? But even if it's naive, maybe it's a type of benevolent delusion, right? We should maybe try to give ourselves a direction, give ourselves some habits, give ourselves some daily goals. Sounds like a good idea, that's what he's saying here. Our relatives just kind of wander in, right? And then not only that, but you go to number eight, this is great. For those of us who lead from one purpose to another, or do not even lead, but are carried over by a sort of hazard, how can such wavering an unstable person possess any good that is fixed and lasting, right? This is epictetus agreeing with this. One day you'll be a wrestler. The next day you'll be a poet. The next day you'll be a philosopher. We have to make choices. And that's what crafting a sense of purpose is. Our purpose is finite. I am not going to be an astronaut. It's too late, right? So I can deceive myself and waste the next six months trying to get into NASA. That doesn't even make sense. I don't think you get into NASA. I don't even know what I'm talking about. That's how far removed I am from that whole world, right? Or if we give a better example, my roommate is an engineer, right? I can't. One, I can't add. Two, it doesn't interest me. Three, I didn't go to school for it. So we have to understand that when we commit ourselves to our purpose, that commitment is powerful. The time, the energy, the resource we put in is meaningful. And we have to choose, right? And there's power there. There's freedom there because then we're free to spend our time on this thing. We're not only distracted. When we're pushed and pulled, we're being controlled by the push and the pull, right? When we, again, define ourselves or define for ourselves clearly, let's even say consistently and maybe even passionately, what our purposes are, what our main purposes are, then we really can start making something beautiful, right? Back to the idea I had earlier, a little bit around the idea, like the New Year's resolutions, right? It's like, OK, now we'll define it. No, we can define it every day. The new me, the glow up, right? That's the point, right? We shouldn't leap from one thing to the next. Our time is limited. Back to the mental morey a little bit, right? Our time is limited. Figure out who we are, right? A lot of the questions, too, in the meditation, like, what are your strengths? Eeky guy asked you, what are you good at? People get weird about answering that. That's not arrogant. I'm bad at math, OK? I'm pretty good at speaking. I'm pretty good at writing. I'm bad at parallel parking. That was random, but it came up recently. That's not relevant. But ultimately, we should take account of what we're good at and what we're bad at. Nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone's bad at stuff, right? So then we have to focus, again, on our purpose to see, OK, where should my time go? What, let's say, things I'm bad at going to bring up, because they're holding back the cultivation of the good, right? But again, it always involves this idea of choice of the path, of the road, and marching down again, and abiding by it. And also, we get some great points here on a very valid idea, which I think is, as an interesting-- let's not say counterpoint to having goals. But it's definitely a little different. And I do think it accompanies-- accompanies having goals really well, right? You have to love the process. And that's kind of a cliche now, right? But I think he's a really good point. He's raising here. For example, I love number three. It is not the fruits of his art. He enjoys. So it's not the actual painting itself, right? It's not the finished product. It was the art itself he enjoyed while he was painting. That's another idea from Kamu, right? I don't love your paintings. I love you painting. If you are really in tune with your purpose in life, that's how it feels. It's not about the grade. The paper was worthwhile. You were engaged with the paper, right? The job isn't only about the paycheck, and money is important, right? I don't like when people act like money doesn't matter. Money matters, right? But the bottom line is, it shouldn't be the only reason we're there. At least, let's put this way. A job is a job. Sometimes, OK, for a limited amount of time, I understand that, because I've been there to a month, going to be a hypocrite, right? Some jobs will just do for the money. But the thing we spend most of our life on, right? Our vocation, which, by the way, a quick definition of vocation, which is what we really want. A vocation is fulfilling because it exists in the crossroads or the intersection between personal fulfillment and public service. You feel good when you're doing it, and you also are helping others in some way, shape, or form. And then that makes you feel good, too. Right? Again, it's this sort of reciprocal thing, but it's both. It's not just the personal check of the personal fulfillment of the check, right? It's, no, I'm a part of something larger than myself and a good, meaningful way. So we want a vocation. When we have a vocation, and when we have a sense of purpose, we're full through the actions themselves. Once again, not the results. Back to stoicism a little bit, right? With intentions being greater than results. We here want to see that when we're really pursuing our purpose, there's nothing outside of that. There's no other goal that we're attaching it to. It's just being done for itself. And that's a real beautiful thing to feel every day, right? There is no result that I care about right now, right? So I think that's also a really great way to think about our sense of purpose, right? Anyone else want to make any remarks? Thank you, Carmelo, for getting us started. That was great. Any questions you want to call attention to in terms of the numbers? All right, so I want to get maybe all for a couple more of the marks on some of these quotes. And again, this is our first time doing this. I think we'll warm up to this process a little bit. And again, keep in mind, it really is, you could write the word question number boom. That's a great way to start the conversation, right? Because again, I want first and foremost that what we're doing in here is useful for everybody once again. So like, even if you don't want to elaborate, you guiding my attention and guiding my lecture in that way is really beneficial, I think. So, well, again, first time, no big deal, but I would like to see more of that. And again, thank you again for your comments earlier because we've done it. So maybe we could just, maybe we're a little tired now too, right? It's almost end of class. All right, I'm done justifying this. So here's a couple more comments from me. Number 13, major, who is everywhere is nowhere. That is especially important in our modern world. We are distracted. If you're really crafting and pursuing purpose, you are not. Your purpose is the thing you focus on. So trying to be everywhere is you texting, while you're studying, while you're listening to music, while you're talking, stop. Single tasking is powerful. Again, eliminating some things that you think are your purpose, but are truly not gives us more time, more energy, more focus to be deliberate and consistent on the purposes that are truly ours, that are truly the best thing we can bring into the world. I love that quote, who is everywhere is nowhere. Don't find joy in useless things. Number 17, beautiful. Even that is an interesting exercise, right? What do I do on a daily basis that is just useless? What thoughts, feelings, and actions like can I just cut out? And that's a good conversation to have with ourselves. Because again, we're fine at our energies finite. Our time is finite. What else? This is great. Because even in ancient Greece, people will walk around and compare themselves to others. That's been for thousands of years, right? In every culture we've done that for all periods of time. But now we have social media, so we can do a costume, right? Number 20 is major. When you find out whether you have accomplished anything, consider whether you desired the same things today as you desired yesterday. So stop comparing yourself to other people. Start comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, right? And he throws in the desire element there because I think that involves goal setting, right? So if your goals are different than in the word yesterday, that's because you made progress. Again, let's say it's because you made progress, especially if you're in tune with yourself, right? But this idea to me is brilliant. You have to be better than who you were yesterday. And I have to, again, in quotes, right? We would like to try to do that. That's a good goal to have. But we torture ourselves, right? Comparison is the thief of joy. So well, in the context, again, primarily with comparing ourselves to other people. And we're going to see a great essay on this from the School of Life. You don't see anybody else's rough drafts. You only see your own, right? So that's one reason to more, let's say, one reason to adopt a mindset that's more similar to number 20, right? Again, I hope we gave this a read. If not, we can return to it in our own time. But I do think Santa goes offering some really great things in number four. And we will return to this chapter, of course. Next class for homework as well, right? So let's maybe now spend a couple minutes. And I'm sorry, I'm going to keep you till about 12 today, I'll keep the homework short for tomorrow. Let's go a little bit to the meditations. And again, we'll open the floor if we have any questions. Or any questions we'd like to consider. We're here to talk about anything you'd like to elaborate on. So anybody, any number of a question that was a particular interest? So this is what happened. I forgot to scroll down. And this is my problem. So I'm going to do better at this. Hold on. Sorry, everybody. Give me a minute here. This happens. OK. OK. So like being shy to answer the questions, even when no one sees them, is very real. I have moments all the time when I'm writing, where I'm like nervous to write something. That's a beautiful moment. Because you're starting to-- if you're nervous to write it, even if you don't, that's like kind of a win. Because you're approaching stuff in your mind that you don't want to make real. But keep in mind that writing it is only just writing it, right? But the idea that you're shy to answer the question, that's actually half the battle you have already won. Because that shyness is telling you something. It's telling you you're getting close to something important. That's the point. So that's a wonderful-- I'm so glad you said that, right? That's the point. And by facing the shyness and moving into-- we don't get confident without fear, right? And I'm using the word fear, using the word shy, a little bit-- I'm saying there are a little bit synonymous. And that's a beautiful point. The whole chapter we have on confidence is called on fear and confidence. Fear comes first for a reason. We need it. So as I said earlier, right? Because the first time doing it, we're going to get used to it and we will. Just write. And if it makes you feel better, and this is maybe an odd suggestion, right? Write it and make sure you put it somewhere where no one's going to see it, or write it, and just rip it up. Write it, and then read it, and then rip it up, right? I'm telling you, because you will conquer that. Because I swear to you, to this day, I've been doing this for years. I still have moments with some really tough thoughts. I don't want to write this down. And sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But either way, that confrontation, right? We have a great quote we'll look at later from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., where he says, and I'm not doing good today with the exact quoting. But I'm going to paraphrase here, right? Just from confronting our fears, we get stronger. And I think the reason for that is we're no longer running from them. They might still be scary, but we're not succumbing to them by confronting them. So that's a great moment, man. So thank you for sharing that. You'll work on that, and it'll get easier. And even, again, the process of working on it is work itself, or is working. You're getting something out of that is what I'm trying to say here. Yeah, more introspective, exactly. Yeah. Exactly, Nia. So like, Nia, that's exactly what this is for, right? For example, I had a client of mine recently adopt this type of practice, and they said, I learned a lot about myself over this week. That's back to Socrates, or that's the know yourself. That's perfect. So, Nia, one, I agree. And I would love to hear, if you wouldn't mind a specific thing that you're thinking about to see if I could be helpful there. A lot of what I hope to do is make the reading something we can actually make practical, right? Which is why I include those questions from our syllabus. What does it mean? I'm sorry, what does it say? What does it mean? How can I apply it? That third question, we work up to that, right? So if there's something specifically from this reading, you'd like me to try, I would appreciate to hear that, because I hope I would be able to apply it for us. Oh, yeah, you're right. That's also a skill we're going to develop for sure this summer. Think of Patrice, what I think I'm doing now. Yeah, so Patrice, that's great, because it's like, I tried to make these questions with that intention in mind. We're going to work through our memory. We're going to work through our understanding of our present. We're going to work through our future. Those are all different time periods that we're going to be reflecting in and on, right? So I'm glad you got that added. That's going to be-- we're going to be moving through different, let's say, temporalities throughout the summer. So that's cool that you know, that resonated with you. Thank you. Number 16 from Carmelo. So you said, with my players, you're a coach, Carmelo? What are you coach, if you don't mind me asking? Basketball? Yeah, I mean, there's so much to be said for the connections between philosophy and coaching. And basketball being a team sport, it's like there's so much there, there's so much richness there, right? And I really would love for you to see how it connects throughout the summer. I'm already doing it, which is great. But philosophy, 100%, I think, will help you grow as a coach. And will also help you offer growth to your players, 100%. So much of what we're going to study, I think, is super useful and applicable. For example, in Nica, Mackin, I think, we're going to cover a little bit probably. Aristotle's using Olympic analogies. He's literally tells us, he's like, you know, it doesn't matter really, or he says, you know, how do you get to the game where you practice, practice, practice, but then you actually have to show up the day up, too, right? All the practice in the world doesn't matter if you don't show up to the actual games. And it doesn't matter if you can tell me the best way to shoot a basketball. If you can't actually shoot, right? He's an action-oriented philosopher. All the theory in the role for him, especially when he's talking to his son in that piece, has to serve action, right? So as a coach, too, you make a game plan, but then we have to execute. And that's where the actual winning occurs, right? So I think you'll see a lot of hopefully good connections. And 16, yeah, speaks to that, right? Speaks to the one thing, I think, while you train hard in practice, right? The games should feel easy, right? The fights should feel easy, because you train so hard. And the idea, too, for Senica, is like, how do we learn to love the hardships instead of hate them? Because why not? A lot of our lives will be spent training in some way. Why not learn to see that these hardships, the obstacle is the way, right? The difficulty is the thing that makes the actual thing easier. We can love it. Yeah, so that's a great thing that you already have your players. That's really cool. Do you think you're sure anything passed on through? So, are you saying stuff that, let's say, are, quote unquote, like, are you saying stuff we pass on or stuff that has been given to us, that has been passed on? Do you know what I mean? Does that make sense? Given to it. OK, yeah. So I think a part of philosophy, so is seeing what works and what doesn't work, right? And a lot of it won't, and some of it will. And I think we have to be open to that, because one, the old cliché thing of history repeats itself. Hopefully not, right? Philosophy helps us make sure that history does not repeat itself. Because we can look at history and go, OK, this is horrible. We don't want to do this again, right? So I think a part of what it means to be a philosopher, too, toward one of our earlier questions is like, we have to examine these things. We have to examine, let's say, the things we quote inherit. Like, if they're good or bad, if they're applicable, if they will or will not work, we have to maybe be willing to try certain things, right? For me, with this, so I have a tendency to ground things in daily life. I think about a family, right? Like, the way my parents lived is going to be different in the way I lived. If I try to use some of the things that they were able to employ, it might not work the same way, right? That doesn't mean I close myself off to learning, though, or at least hearing them, for example, right? Again, I really shy away, usually, from absolute thinking. So I don't like to say the words all or never or none, right? Of course, there are some cases where that will apply, for sure. But generally speaking, in regards to what we inherit from past generation or from past societies, I think it's important to practice philosophy, which is to say, be able to examine things as clearly and as truthfully as possible. Because ultimately, some stuff will work. And it's like, why not use something? Again, speaking a little bit generally here, because there are reasons to not use things, of course, right? That being said, if it is something that will lead us to help others and help ourselves, I think it makes sense to use it, right? So we have to examine things, I think. Again, back to epictetus, scrutinized things. We're getting training in that with these questions. Was that a good answer, or so? Cool. Carmelo, yeah, the wandering person. If someone came up to me, a fighter friend who was clearly wandering or lacked a direction in life, I would say, let's talk about some philosophy. I would say, let's get to know what you're-- again, back to Ikigai a little bit, right? What you're good at, what you think you could serve, how you think you could be of service, what you think you could be paid for as part of Ikigai, what you love to do is another question, right? So the wandering person needs to maybe ask themselves, what direction they like to go in, right? A direction in life gives us challenges, gives us responsibility, gives us freedom, like that direction is really important, right? So Seneca is warning us against the wandering as you are, too, right? Would 13 apply to God a question or a quote, so will? Well, let me get that back up again one second. That's a really good question. So you mean, basically, is it as referring to like God's omniscience, or like God's omnipresence omnipotence type thing? I'm not sure. I don't think he-- again, from my perspective, and obviously I'm not Seneca. I'm doing my best to speak from his perspective here. I don't think he was probably referring to a higher power there. I would think he's referring to distracted individuals. You know, strangely enough, so Seneca is coming from that ancient perspective. I'm not all the way certain about his religious beliefs. I would think he probably did believe in some type of higher power. That was very common in ancient times. I would argue he likely did. I could look into that, though, because I'm not sure about that. That's an interesting question, though. Some of the thinkers will study, I can tell you, with a greater degree of certainty, whether or not they were, people of faith. But Seneca, I'm not all the way, sir. Let's see what else. Single task he has, very powerful. Seven. Seven against how long the quotes? Question seven. OK, cool. Let's get over there. I'm going to class soon. I'm sorry, we're going a little bit over here. But I like that we're having some good conversations here. Where'd it go? Sorry, once I can accidentally clicked out of-- or I accidentally clicked out of the bibliotherapy book. And you want second here. I know I'm wrong, OK, I'm right. Sorry for the delay. Number seven in the meditations. How did you live your purpose today? How will you for the rest of the day? So this is like that really connects to that idea of abiding, right? So let's say for argument's sake, you have a sense of purpose. That's actually a question I ask myself on a very frequent basis. Did I serve my purposes as I see them for myself today? So for example, if I taught and I wasn't ready, I would have to answer that. No, I didn't serve my purpose to the best of my ability, right? No, I didn't like-- was I kind to my sister when she needed me today or was I a little bit rude or dismissive? Well, one of my purposes is to be a good brother. So I have to keep myself accountable. So that question's primarily to get us, again, thinking in that Senate mindset, maybe, did I abide by my sense of purpose? And then, OK, maybe I failed, but it's like two o'clock. So I could pick up the pace a little bit and try to make up for it. That second question is kind of an optimistic question, I think, to get us thinking about maybe how we did or did not, and then how we can moving forward do a little bit better in the context of one day and fulfilling our purpose. Was that helpful? Cool. All right. So we're going to do these two more than we'll punctuate class. I'll do my best to speak a little bit quickly here and clearly. Carmelo, 15, questions are, quote, question. OK, great. 15, what is stopping you from being the person you want to be? Would you want to elaborate on your interpretation of that? Or you want me to jump in and talk a little bit about the question of what I think it could do for us? Oh, a question that you like, yeah. So for me, this is great, too, because once again, the obstacle is the way a lot of the time. That's a great quote from Marcus, really? I'm adding the a lot of the time because sometimes obstacles are just terrible, right? And it's, again, for Marcus, he was, I think, he would even in that context say, well, we're going to continue living. So the only real obstacle is an obstacle that would affect our ability to be good people, which, for him, is within our control at all times, right? I'm interpreting it a little more broadly, for example. But ultimately, this question-- thank you, Patricia. I enjoy these two. These are interesting questions. What is stopping you from being the person you want to be? Once we identify that, again, they're easier to deal with. Some things we have to learn to deal with and walk alongside. Other things we can conquer, other things. So we don't know until we know, right? Great quote from Al Kendi that will encounter is, you cannot cure something for which you do not know the cause, right? So again, that's kind of that health care almost vibe, I think. But something might be in your way that you're not even able to describe. So answering this question makes a lot of sense for our daily life. What's stopping you from being the person I want to be? Well, maybe it's my anger. Maybe it's the way I'm managing my time. Maybe I have to change the way I eat, right? Like, that's possible. Maybe I'm just hanging all the time. Or maybe I have to sleep better. These are all interesting ways to pursue that question, right? But some people they just want to press forward, right? Stop. Look around you, right? What's getting in the way? What's causing this, right? So yeah, things to think about. Thank you, Carmelo. Number 20, Dan, is that questions or quotes? Questions, great. How often do you break a mental sweat? So this is kind of a reference to the movie dodgeball. I like to break a mental sweat, too. Does anybody get that reference or not? I'd be very happy. You'll get an A in the class. If you got the reference, it's going to be hard for me to not give you an A. And now, Carmelo, thank you. And I believe you because you said it really before I-- you said that in the chat before I said, I'll give you an A. And I can't obviously-- that's obviously a joke. I can't do that. But ultimately, this is an important question, right? If we're really pursuing our purpose, we have to be challenging ourselves, right? And we see that the idea of challenging ourselves comes up a lot because our purpose, in order for it to feel meaningful, it has to kind of at least a lot of the times, in my opinion, be challenging, right? Because part of our purpose, too, with philosophy, as you've been saying all day, is to transcend ourselves. And that's also why so I was so enthusiastic about your point earlier, that's you challenging yourself. And that's a part of this process, right? So some of these questions, too, the next one, right? How are you-- not the next one, a few above it. How are you careless? That's not a fun thing to think about. You're calling yourself out. You know what I mean? I'm a little bit careless around, for example, like, I'm not organizing my physical things as much as I should be. I'm a little bit careless. So I'll spend an extra 10 minutes in the morning trying to find a pair of socks. And I'm like, well, if I wasn't careless about this yesterday, my life would be easier right now, right? So that's, again, very small in my new example. But by confronting ourselves and calling ourselves out, we might get the progress we need. But that's really breaking a mental sweat, right? Some of these questions, too, I'm asking you to think about what you don't think about. I'm asking you to notice what goes unnoticed. That's not a normal inquiry, right? When do you work hardest? When do you feel distracted, right? Getting into these questions, how do you deal with challenges? Which, if your actions are unnecessary, these are all sort of ideas that, I think, again, will challenge us in ways that will lead to our development and growth, right? So we're not going to cover all these questions today, because tomorrow, I want to give us time and talk and think about, as we see here, as I'm scrolling, right? We've got a lot of questions here. So it returns to this tomorrow. Let me just quickly give you some homework. And then we will call it a class, and again, I apologize for keeping us a little bit longer here. But I really appreciate these questions, and I'll do a better job of being vigilant over the chat. So I'm going to have to run over time like we did today. And the future, I'll try my best. So for homework, let's please read me one second here. So we're meeting tomorrow at 9 AM. So I'm not going to give us too much homework. But I would like to first read something. This will be good. All right, so please read number 10 in this chapter, right? So every reading is to be absolutely clear. Every reading we ever do will be from the real therapy, right? And that's, of course, that's-- maybe also booking. So not too much reading again. I suggest getting it started now, page two to page four. We will get the homework. And again, I will be sending these recordings. Do we get it? So the homework is to read page 40 to 44. That's number 10. And then number one, which is page two to four. All right, cool. So once again, I recorded this. I will send it to us. Thank you all for coming. Very good job today. And I will see you tomorrow at 9 AM. Thank you. Take care, everybody. All right, so we're going to start now with Ikigai. We talked about this a little bit yesterday. It's a Japanese piece of philosophy that means reason for being. So can we all see my screen now? And maybe more importantly, then if we can see it, can we see what's written on these circles? OK, let me try again. OK, how about now? Yeah, all right, great. So this is Ikigai. So we have on the outside, I think these are the questions that I want to spend a few minutes addressing right now. And again, they're not necessarily frames. That's praises questions here. But what do you love? What does the world need? What can you be paid for? And what are you good at? All right, so what we see are sort of various, can I fight say, it's like points of convergence with these things. So if you love something and you're good at it, it's your passion. If you love something and it's what the world needs, it's a mission. If you are doing something that the world needs and you can be paid for it according to this, it's a vocation. So we kind of, let's say, have a different understanding of vocation from Dr. Hansen that we talked about. Nonetheless, there we are. And what you're good at and what you can be paid for, that would be your profession. So the conversions of all of these things would be your ikigai as the image I think displays quite nicely, right? So what we want to consider for the next few minutes and I'll let us meditate on this as we do with our questions, think about those main ideas right on them, right? Try to, again, be as honest as possible. I won't necessarily ask for feedback here. If you want to offer it, of course, as always, feel free. But I do understand that this is pretty personal. So think about what these, let's say, points of inquiry mean for you. So maybe you're thinking about what ikigai to develop. Maybe you already have something in your life that feels like you're ikigai. That's great, right about it, right? The more, again, we fill it out, the more we detail it, the more it becomes clear, the more powerful it becomes. So take a few minutes here. I'll say, I'll give us five minutes to think about this. And yeah, think about what you love to do, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you're good at. And see where those answers might overlap. That's a beautiful thing. So let's take a few minutes. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Okay, so that was our few minutes spent with ikigai. And as I said, I know this is maybe a little personal buzz. Anybody have any thoughts I'd like to share from the experience kind of sitting with these questions for a few minutes? [BLANK_AUDIO] So this actually was very useful for me. When I honestly, when I left grad school, I kind of discovered this idea. And it actually was really helpful for me to kind of get myself moving in the right direction, right? And I can honestly say that, yeah, Carmelo exactly, right? This is really a tool to create a perspective on ourselves and on our direction in life. So I think it is, I mean, I think it could potentially be a really interesting starting point for people to figure out their path. And also, again, if you're already on a great path where you feel like you're in touch with this sense of ikigai on a regular basis, it's a great way to articulate it even more. And think about even new ways, I think, of doing the same things in a way. By that I mean, for me, I'm a professor, obviously, I do this for living to the main thing. I love this. This has always felt like my reason for being. And then recently I started kind of working as after getting a certification, a philosophical consultant where I work more with individuals. And it's been great to see how the ikigai has followed, right? So it's been really cool to, again, ask someone who may have already had a sense of ikigai. I can revisit it and then it gave me a whole other appreciation for something else, right? Again, that's similar, but nonetheless, I'm just trying to give an example of how, even if you're already along in your vocation in your career, let's say, this can still be really powerful for new pathways within that field of meaning, of productivity and of service, right? Let's see if we have some comments here. Yeah. So I couldn't agree with that more. The idea that it's hard to find something you can be paid for and love at the same time because business and pleasure don't always coexist. So I think there's a lot of actually really interesting points here, right? So I would ask, can they coexist in order for them, like, so can they coexist? I would say it's possible, right? So maybe we could even say that ikigai is aspirational, right? It's something we can strive towards. I also think that, let's say, even with a sense of ikigai, you don't love what you do every day all the time, right? Even with ikigai, it's very possible that there are moments of pleasure, then moments of a lack of pleasure, right? And I'm just doing my best to kind of defend the usefulness of the philosophy, but you're right, 100%. Right, this is not necessarily anything other than, I would say, a good tool to construct a path, understand that path. And, you know, it's definitely not saying that it's easy to find the ikigai, right? And I think that's a very legitimate point that you're raising for sure. Difficult but possible, I would say, for sure. And we could maybe even work, let's say, let's be honest, too, right? We don't feel like we're that good at something right now, but we can develop being good at it, right? Or let's say maybe we haven't found a way for our current position to fulfill a need in the world, but now ikigai can maybe put us on the search for that, right? So it's not necessarily to say that this is describing how things only are. It can also be a way to construct ways that things can be, right? And I also think even just considering that this can be possible, might have us asking new questions that could be very helpful, right? Sustainability in patients, yeah. So Naya, I mean, sustainability is huge. And that's to the point we had a moment ago, right? That's where we have to balance, let's say, some type of pleasure with our sense of what we do, right? Which isn't to say, again, that it's constantly pleasurable, but we shouldn't hate what we do, what we should try to write to the best of our ability, right? And also, I think I may have mentioned this yesterday, right? But it's normal, I think, in a life, I would say normal, in quotes as usual, right? Because what's normal? But I would imagine a lot of us, myself, included had jobs that weren't compatible with ikigai, right? I think ikigai is asking us to consider more what we do, let's say, with the majority of our working lives. So it's normal, I think, to have jobs here and there that don't fit ikigai. But again, it's something to strive for in the sense that what would we like for our careers, our vocations, that are the sustainable ones, right? Ikigai would make them sustainable. So it's not to say that everything we do in terms of our careers has to be connected to this, but it would be nice, of course. But yeah, I mean, obviously some jobs wouldn't fall into this category. And I think that's where patience comes in, right? Patience in terms of seeing where I can improve, what needs to happen, again, patience when we have bad luck, definitely important in pursuing purpose. I want to do, actually, you know what, I'm thinking about this too. I should do a chapter on patience in this book. I think patience comes up a couple times, but I think it does warrant its own chapter. And I'm not, how do I say it like, there's a reason it's not there because I'm not very patient. So I would actually also benefit myself from writing the chapter. So I should get to that work, because the point you're bringing up is a really important one too, right? How often do I recommend looking at ikigai? So, you know, Carmel, I don't have like a great answer to that, and I apologize. But I would say, okay, for me, I did it after grad school. And I really focus primarily on what I'm good at and what I could be paid for. Because for me, and it'll honestly having a degree in philosophy, what can you be paid for? Question is hard to answer. So I had to sit with that, all right, so break it down. I know I can speak, I can read and write pretty well, I like talking to people, so that goes into what you love, right? But I also feel like I'm good at listening. So, you know, and then I'm like, so what job would that be great, you know, would that fit for? And I knew I had a feeling I wanted to go into teaching, I did some teaching in college. But the teaching job didn't reveal itself at that time, right? So this is also a tool to sort of see through like the, let's say that the uncertainties of life, right? To create clarity within ourselves is usually beneficial to seeing the world more clearly as well, I think. And when we have an aim, things kind of become more clear too, because at least we're looking in a direction, right? So how often I would say, if and when things start feeling meaningless, return to this, remind ourselves, right, of the path we're on. If, you know, if there seems to be a lack of clarity in life, this is great. But in terms of like, if you're clear enough, and you just did this now, and it was helpful, I don't think you need to return to this all that frequently, right, as in the whole thing. I think throughout your life, you want to remind yourself, or throughout your week, oh, I'm good at this, I have, I have this under control, I want to be confident, right? Of course, you get paid, that's good, I'm getting paid for this, cool. I think we always want to remind ourselves of what we love, that's a good thing. We always want to feel like we're of service. But to sit and really counter all of these ideas at once, I would say here and there, and that's a bad answer, right? I told you, I'm sorry, I had no good answer for this. I think if, you know, again, for me, I'm fortunate because I found this and that involved luck, and then also involves work, right? That being said, I feel it, I feel very in touch with my eeky guy. So I feel like when you're in touch with it, you'll almost feel it every day naturally. So is your question more so like looking at this as in looking at the graph and trying to like, answer the questions again? Hold on, we have another great question here. Does eeky guy translate to taking the path of least resistance or is pain necessary for achieving eeky guy? Again, I think luck plays a role here, and honestly, but I also think that pain is going to be necessary a little bit, right, because to even be good at something, it usually takes effort and failing and dealing with that and pushing ourselves. And, you know, I think even questioning ourselves can be kind of painful, right? Again, it was a little bit of pain for me to realize, okay, there's not a whole lot likely to be paid for to do this. So I have to figure this out. So I think ultimately suffering and pain will play a role, even when we're living, all right, so there's maybe finding our eeky guy and then living our eeky guy. Even for me, right? And I may have mentioned this yesterday, but when I'm teaching a lot, I get exhausted. When I'm teaching a lot, I feel pressure. When I'm teaching a lot, I'm worried I'm going to fail. When I'm teaching a lot, sometimes I feel like I do fail. To be, let's say, for one example, and I mentioned this already, but to be as diligent as I should be answering emails, I feel like I failure sometimes. That's not pleasant, right? So there's a little bit of pain there. So I think ultimately, with anything meaningful in life, there's likely going to be some type of pain involved, right? So the path of least resistance, I think sometimes can be taken, because sometimes when I'm teaching, I feel no resistance. I feel like this is exactly what I'm meant to be doing. And sometimes it's like I'm not even thinking, right? I'm just so in the moment with all of you, and I'm listening attentively, that's a real great moment. But to live the whole Eeky guy, sometimes for another example, right? When I have over a hundred students, I have to grade papers for five hours on a Sunday. That's not easy after hour, two and a half, right? I have to push through. I have to create systems to get myself through that discipline, basically, is what it is, right? But to get myself through that difficult task. So I would say it's a little bit of both, but I would say pain is necessary. By that, I mean, it's going to happen necessarily, right? We're going to have to cause ourselves pain, obviously, but it'll, I think it'll happen. Was that a good answer? Are we satisfied with my responses so far with this? Carmelo too. Was that okay? I'm sorry. That's a great question, though. Can we move on or do we want me to try to keep going here or anything else you'd like to add? Okay, so let's move on a little bit here then. Cool, cool. All right. So let's move on. Let's go now to this as we've been referencing here and there throughout this whole conversation, right? So as you see, I'll have some points highlighted for us in red. And before I get to my points in, Carmelo, you already had a great opening statement that we, I think, at least partially addressed, has anybody have any thoughts, questions, agreements, disagreements from this essay that I'd like for me to make sure I discuss? And again, if they come up as I'm lecturing, of course, put them in the chat or cut me off, that's totally fine. But as I'm scrolling, any thoughts let's start off with? All right, so I'll get this little started here and again, we did this homework or did this reading for homework. So I'm going to highlight a few points and again, I'm going to sort of hopefully ask some new questions or maybe provide a little more elaboration on some points that might be a little bit unique to the essay or a little different than the essay, but I do think this is a really solid essay. I like this a lot, right? So as we said, he starts off first paragraph, he even gives us a graph here and the graph is really interesting, right? So the idea is that art per capita GDP has skyrocketed between 1800 and 2000, right? And I can't imagine that it's generally decreased since 2000, right? And again, maybe I'm wrong, but ultimately, this is shocking, right? So as I said, in the last 200 years, the world has witnessed the greatest increase in productivity in the history of humanity. So here we are with highly productive people, okay? Not only he says, have we become more productive, we have also acquired a sense of what being productive should look like, being in office, surrounded by a lot of people, attending meetings, traveling a lot, and answering many, many messages. So let's pause here for a second and think about what that means for us, right? How do you look when you're productive or what does being productive look like for you? So for me, I don't work in an office, so that's not how being productive looks for me. Being productive for me looks like sitting at my kitchen table and focusing, right? Being productive for me usually means I'm listening to instrumental music, and I have, let's say, like a time around my phone, I'm really focusing, right? That's what being productive for me, kind of, that's what that word calls to my attention. Right? So take a minute. And again, as I'm saying, take a minute, I'm going to continue to talk a little bit. But that's even a good question. How do I even know I'm being productive in this way of seeing it, I think, is a reasonably good question, right? Let's keep going here. He starts to challenge it already, right? We are in danger of missing, again, if we're seeking to this understanding of being productive as being in an office, being surrounded by a lot of people, being in meetings, right? We may be missing out in a fruitful kind of work, right, or a fruitful experience that really requires, okay? Some of our most productive moments will have a little in common with the scenarios envisaged by the modern religion of hard work, cool idea, right? Modern religion of hard work. And we unpack that, and I think we can do this respectfully, right? We know religion involves daily habits, religion involves meeting with other people, right? So it involves worship, right? So what do we worship when we're being productive? Maybe it's money, right? Maybe it's status. So we can see it through that lens, I think, really interestingly and analyze it, right? So I like that he asks us to consider it in that way. They will be quiet, again, these other types of moments. They will be quiet, outwardly idle moments, in which we'll at least, I'm sorry, at last, have the opportunity to break through cliched assumptions and received ideas, in which something vital and authentic will search through our minds, and in which we'll have the courage to take a neglected intuition seriously, or give an opposing point of view that the benefit of the doubt, moments in which we'll realize how little time we have left on earth, and we'll use the feeling of panic to orient us towards what we really want and have known for a long time already needs to be done. So one point I want to make about the religion of work is that these idle moments can I think even sound like prayer, right? Because when one is praying, especially alone, it would seem perhaps that, again, especially if you were unfamiliar with what it looked like when one was praying, right? It would look like idle time. So the reason I imagine this is because we'll kind of accompany this conversation with a discussion about our rupture in time practice, which is to say, you know, a meditation practice, right? So meditation and prayer, I think we can look at through a similar, or look at as if they are similar in some regards, right? So we're keeping that in mind. So what's he presenting here? First again, I think, you know what, it's kind of, the red is hard to read just to be correct. I'm kind of having difficulty with this, but again, I think it calls our attention to it, but it's hard to read a lot of words in a row and red. Anyway, we want to make time to not be productive, right? So we can almost refer to it again in that sense of prayer, meditation, as time to contemplate, as time to think. Additionally, and we talked about this yesterday, I think, right? Some modes of meditation encourage us to maybe try to empty our minds, to not think. That could also play a role in this as well. As we'll see with the painting, it's someone looking out a window. Maybe it's time to walk with no destination, just to observe what's around you. Maybe it's time to go out in nature, right? One of the assignments that you'll have an option for is to discuss and engage with the importance of one of your meditative spaces, right? So a space where you go to think. A lot of them in the past have been, for example, beaches or orchard beaches, one that comes to mind. Long Island City on the pier comes to mind, right? Other places that, you know, Pelambé Park, City Island where you have this sort of nature as a part of the experience, that might be a part of it, right? Of this idea he's saying here. So the rupture in our time of being productive should be something that is habitual, which is not a point, I think he makes, and I think it's sort of made explicitly, but it's not a point he harps on. So when I'm adding to the conversation, right? When he's describing here these times to not be doing much, these idle times that stand outside of the conception of what's productive are actually very meaningful, right? So he goes on to describe a couple points here that I think are really interesting. One he talks about is I just did the location, okay? It's hard to do this kind of thinking in his idle time, separate thinking, right? This kind of, let's say even daydreaming might be a way to understand it, and expect it locations, so we have to have maybe a space for this that we habitually visit that is outside of the normal spaces that we have, right? It's also hard to do this type of thinking when we're doing what we're meant to be doing, right? Which is to say again, this sort of inclination to do productive tasks, where are this task orientation? The best sort of thinking emerges when we have no set agenda, so get rid of your to-do list, maybe, right? In the hollows of the day, when we are merely to be walking around the park or taking a train journey, having a bath or staring blankly into space, right? So let's even, once again, connect it to this idea of the phone being omnipresent. You're on the train. What could you be doing? Once again, checking your emails. Don't, and I actually think a train is a great example of this. I love taking the train into spacing out, right? And the space out is to the space of our broader sense of purpose, our larger sense or senses of meaning in life, right? That might connect, or hopefully do connect to our daily tasks, but if they don't, we have to be- we have to awake ourselves, right, we have to wake ourselves up to this fact of our existence, right? And we'll get into a little bit more about why that's so important as we get to the essay, right? And to this point, right, he's saying, this is a really powerful notion here, right? We are so much better at executing on plans than stepping back to evaluate whether the plans are the right ones. That's major. Because that's, again, as I was saying a moment ago, where the time will go by and you're productive, but you don't feel a sense of meaning. That's the idea of the right ones, right? If we had this strength, he says, to disagree with the harried conditions of modern work. So we're just constantly getting pushed and pulled, demands, demands, demands, deadlines, whatever. We might come to recognize that a quiet room in mid-afternoon, when we have nothing pressing to do until supper, just a few hours, right? No one to see and no messages to reply to might be among the most productive places we could be. We could recognize the profound value of spending hours staring out the window, ostensibly or seemingly wasting time. But in reality, perhaps, generating thoughts that would spare us extraordinary confusion and error. One big on this, we need time to just tinker with ideas, to play around with ideas. It's meaningful. And those ideas will, of course, likely come from what we're doing in life. That's part of the point, instead of being wrapped up so much in doing the things. We need time. And we're going to really talk about this in the practices chapter, again, to kind of step out and above our daily lives. To look at things from, let's say, the view from above is the actual words we'll see in that chapter, right? To take like a bird's eye view of our existence that has to be in a calm place where we're not being influenced by too many other things, right? So let's get to the painting, right? I think this is kind of a cool painting. Once again, someone's staring out a window. This painting could be meaningful to have in your home. If you don't do this, you might need a reminder, right? I love the idea of physical space having reminders, right? Again, I may have mentioned this, but I'm looking for apartments now. Actually, it might have been in my other class. I'm looking at apartments now, and I'm going to really make a greater effort, because we're moving out of one spot, me and my roommates into another, to like really make this space have reminders of this sort, right? Maybe not this painting specifically, but like we need, or not, they need whatever. I think we definitely benefit from having deliberate aspects of our physical space. The stuff we see on a daily basis, be virtuous reminders of who we should be, right? So let's say you're someone who really is constantly quote-unquote busy, and you now, maybe after in this essay, or even before probably had the inkling that, we need some of the time, this idle time, this ruptured time that Devoutana is describing in your life, a painting like this might be a really good call, right? Or maybe I was big on this at one point, putting posted notes with quotes on them in different places of your living space, right? Or to encourage certain ways of thinking, feeling, and being, it's a very real suggestion. And I think that's partially why he includes paintings in so many of his works, right? These aesthetic experiences, these experiences with art, with music, right? These are meaningful things, right? I'm sure I'm not alone here, but I listen to music every day, that's one of the first things I do when I wake up, and it's very important for me, for my happiness, for my meaningful productivity, right? It really sets the tone. So maybe a part of this, too, is considerations of, as he's saying, you know, how we spend our time, where we go to think, and then a painting to remind us to work this into our daily lives, to remind us of the beauty and the importance of this type of idle time, that in fact is meaningful, outside of what might be considered to be productive, right? So it's kind of a cool painting. And it's even an idea, too, I like in the capture for the painting, right? It's even asking us this essay to reconsider what it means to be active, right? She's active in this painting. There could be a lot of activity going on, that's very meaningful, right? But we might look from a distance in our conception of work, or you're done doing anything. It's not a healthy assumption to make. And then he talks about this idea, again, challenging us to rethink laziness in our inability to be lazy enough. That's where some problems might lie. That's where we might run into trouble, right? Outwardly idling does not have to mean that we are neglecting to be fruitful, right? I think fruitful, even, this is a great idea, too, maybe, right? Fruitful versus productive, that the word "versus" is being very important there. Maybe we should get rid of the idea of productivity entirely, and focus on being fruitful, because maybe fruitful just is a way to understand what it means to be productive with a sense of meaning. Things to think about, right? Not an insignificant vocabulary change there, and again, this idea below the surface, a lot may be going on, that's really important, and that's difficult, back to the idea of pain, right? As he says in his essay, it might be painful to confront the fact that, for the past three months, I'm doing stuff, but it's not really meaningful to me. But through that pain, if we're confident enough to address it honestly, and that makes some different choices, maybe, we could at least start moving in a new direction. That's not being naive, it doesn't mean you're going to get a new job tomorrow, right? But it means, hey, maybe I could start working on my resume, or, hey, maybe I could go talk to that person who could be useful, not the right word to use, who might be helpful in me pursuing a new career, maybe we're not doing that because we're lacking the confidence, but the pain can drive us, because the pain might be, oh, this is a waste of time, then, well, the fear should be, I don't want to keep doing this, and waste the next six months. Those are positive drivers if we convert them into confident action, right, and rational action. Once again, only pain be confront when we take the view from the top, and we're no longer just submerged in these tasks in being productive, but in not being fruitful. Let's keep going here, and again, he says he got what I'm saying here, right? These kind of thoughts, once I just said that pain, from that reflection, right, on value and ultimate purpose in the face of a busy life, only emerges in this idle time, and we have to be brave enough to distance ourselves from our immediate demands. This is really interesting, too. I was listening to, I can't remember who it was, but it was a podcast, and an MMA fighter in the UFC was fighting, was talking about fighting, and he said, it's like, I had to have the confidence to take rest days, right, because you start training out of a sense of compulsion. You start doing the tasks out of a sense of nervousness, right, that you might lose the job. Out of a sense of anxiety that isn't even real, we can be driven by that. It takes currency, no, no, I'm taking this afternoon off, or you know what, no, I'm not going to work extra tonight. I'm going to take this hour to instead give myself some idle time. Okay, it's not easy, once again, back to the pain being involved, but the botanical suggestion that it's essential, right, again, because if you're caught up in all these tests, you're not giving yourself time or taking the view from above to look down on them, and even also, let's say, give you from above to look forward, right, give you from above to look to the past, has the six months been actually fruitful, not just productive, right, for examples. Okay, we could be so busy that the busyness becomes the defense mechanism, we're avoiding that important question, that nagging question, is this what I should be doing, and back to you guys a little bit, right, is this my reason for being? Okay, or what other, let's say, smaller purposes might I be fulfilling, daring and daring to sit at home, he says, with our thoughts, risking encounters with certain anxiety inducing or melancholy, but also highly necessary ideas could create a sense of balance for us. I mean, need courage to do that, right, he says, the heroically hard worker isn't necessarily the one in the business lounge of the international airport, let's say, frantically answering emails, right, it might be the person gazing without expression out of the window and occasionally writing down one or two ideas on a pad of paper, he loves self writing to this guy, that might be the hard work that will properly honor our potential. So even the idea for a moment here, another sort of interesting relationship, our potential versus productivity, we always think, and I think oftentimes it can be, their productivity is a way of actualizing our potential, but what if it's not? Because once again, what if the work we're so busy being productive doing, is it actually meaningful or fruitful, right, so these are all very interesting conversations, and let's see, I see we have some great comments in the chat, and I apologize for not scrolling earlier. How do we balance the positive this with the coldness of the world? That's a great question, yeah, that's a great question. So I think one, of course, we have to think about the particulars of each circumstance, right, and even in this really great response, you mentioned three different ideas, right, all of which have their own sort of set of thinking on it, right. So I think what he's saying here, and I'll start very practical, and again, if you'd like me to elaborate more and add more, we definitely can't, right? So I think one, from a practical standpoint, he might suggest, or I would suggest after reading this, that you try to work into your weekly life, or even daily life, if you can, maybe, some type of rupture practice, right? So that's something as simple as 10 minutes on a Sunday, where you have nothing else going on, and maybe you do have a pen and paper out, where you ask some of the questions and confront some of the relationships amongst these ideas that we've been discussing, right? So the question of, or the question from EG guy, for example, or the question that he's asking us, or any question among others, of like, okay, so I've been really busy this week, but what did I actually do that was meaningful? What did I actually do that was, of service to someone else? What did I actually do that made me feel a sense of joy? One of the things we'll look at today, if we have time, and if not next class, or for homework, maybe, he has another great piece about thinking on what excites us, right? And that's very meaningful. And what excites us, I think, is also a meaningful concept in terms of what will be fruitful for us, right? So one, I would say, from a practical standpoint, in terms of balancing the positivity, and let's say, I think this might pertain mostly to your idea of business affairs, because I'm imagining by that, you mean like the rigors and the, like, the rigors of business, right? Like, sort of, like, the affairs part for me, mean, like, connoting or meaning, like, we're so busy at work that we don't have time for this. So I would say, start very small and try to make 10 minutes a week, or maybe even 10 minutes at the end of the month, right? That's one practical suggestion, sorry. Within that suggestion, too, it might be reappropriating the way we use some of our time on a daily basis, right? So maybe instead of listening, for me at least, maybe listening to an audio book or listening to music on the drive from work, I would take five minutes at that time to have these conversations with myself, right, to reconnect to the meaning of the work. Well, let's say the drive to work is a very good time as well, to think about what am I about to go do? Is it meaningful? Is it, again, in line with these ideas that he's saying here, does it connect to my purpose? Is it fruitful and not just productive, right? So I think that's kind of one in one A from a practical standpoint. And I think also in regards to the striving for status, we can maybe even re-evaluate the meaning of status, right, and that's such a good point you're raising right, because we're obsessed with that. We're obsessed with status, I think, as a culture. But the thing about status is it rarely has anything to do with what you actually do on a daily basis, right? So your title, I think, especially in certain businesses, doesn't even make it clear what you're necessarily doing on a daily basis. And what you're doing on a daily basis is where the actual meaning will come from, right? So I think we could start, perhaps, by seeing that striving for status in general is problematic, right? And I think that would fit within the philosophy of what this paper is trying to ask us to consider. It's a very anxious over-status, right, and/or we think that once we achieve a certain degree of status, certain worries will go away, often they don't, and if they do, they're going to be likely replaced by other worries, right? So you think, for example, and of course, I don't mean you, by you, I mean you, proverbially. So we, I guess, as people, right, we think that achieving a higher status will alleviate our stress when, in fact, it might alleviate some, but it's likely that, once again, it'll be replaced by others. And making this type of idle time is actually, I think, very important in order to have any type of healthy relationship to striving for status, right, because you're striving for status that's striving to be meaningless, because as I'm just saying, your expectations might be incorrect, or it might be benevolent, let's say, let's even be nice about it. Maybe it's a good thing to strive for status, but if you're still doing it without including ruptures in your time to consider whether or not it's meaningful to you and useful and helpful to others, then it's really going to be off base, right? So we could even say, maybe, now we're examining a lot of different angles, but if striving for status is okay, I would argue that it's only okay if you do this, right? If you actually create some type of life where you're, to use your word, balancing a sense of creating, or you're balancing practices where we create a sense of what we're doing in terms of whether it is meaningful and fruitful, right? And one of the things we might be doing is striving for status, right? So I think the only way to strive for status at all in a healthy way would be to take these considerations pretty seriously, I would say, right? Because status for its own sake, you know, there might likely be a sense of emptiness there, right? But if a new sense of status or a new way of being seen by others can help you serve them, it can help you, once again, be fulfilled, then we're talking about vocation, right? So from a very practical standpoint, this may or may not be helpful, but I'm an adjunct professor, right? So that means I have certain limitations on how much I can teach, I have certain limitations on how much I earn, which then I have to work at different institutions, right, essentially to make a living. So for me, if I were to increase my status and go from adjunct to full-time professor, I could work at one place, we could save me time driving, right, which would then, I would likely use that time hopefully for something that would serve my development as a person and as an instructor, right? So to a degree, I think striving for status can work, but again, for me, I just went through the little process there because I've thought about that, right? I know for me that it just wouldn't mean more money, it would also mean more time, more free time, which would benefit me in a number of ways, both personally and professionally, right? That's only because I've given the time to think about it, is it worth it for me to pursue this? And for me to pursue it, I have to take on a certain number of responsibilities. I have to go to school, finish my doctorate, right? That requires, I spend a lot of time, money, and energy for that, right? So without having the conversations, I would maybe just be frustrated by my status, but I see it, and there's other things to consider as well here, of course, right? But just in the context of this conversation, I've personally made time to consider, again, from a larger perspective, what I'm pursuing, and also from the most detailed perspective. All of that happens when I'm not teaching, when I'm teaching, when I'm answering emails, I'm answering emails. I've personally found this to be very helpful, this meaning the ruptures in time, the idle time, as a part of a balanced life. Was that okay for that? I do my best to respond to people, but I really, if I don't, please let me know. Is that what we move on, or do you feel like that was suitable? And I think power structure, too, it's another really interesting point, right? I think power structures also are things that we can reflect upon when we're doing this idle time, right? So if we're in a situation where, for example, power structures are unjust, we can think about how we could potentially change that, right? How we can influence that with our thinking, feeling, and acting. So primarily, in that case, I would imagine it would be with our acting, right? But those are realizations that we would likely only come to when we, once again, step outside of the structure itself to look at it, right? To question it. When we talk about power structures, we can frame that in various ways, right? We need to step aside and analyze it to notice what's potentially bad about it, right? So again, I think that would come not from being immersed in it, but from stepping outside and seeing, right? Once again, back to this idea of idle time, making time to contemplate and to examine. I mean, I would say sleeping is more than productive. I think sleeping is necessary, right? I think, again, for me, sleep is super important. I've researched sleep a lot because I'm not good at sleeping. That's a fun thing to share. I research sleeping, but I have, because I think sleeping is really important, right? And again, I don't think we should look at sleep or rest only as pathways to being more productive. I think rest is something that we should look at as intrinsically valuable and meaningful for its own safe, right? It's a natural part of being a person, especially sleep, right? That's a good question. Yeah. So I would say yes, but even we have to expand the idea perhaps. How much time should we spend taking when the idea is before executing? So Dale, I hate to give you a bad answer here, but it depends on the, I would say it depends on the idea, right? It depends on your, let's say, tendencies once again. So like if you're someone who tends to take action without researching or let's say tinkering, then you have to increase that if you're someone who tends to feel like you're overthinking, you have to think a little bit less or tinker a little bit less. One way to get a grip on that is to examine and watch ourselves, but also to ask others, right? Like, the people closest to us might be helpful here. Don't ask just one person, right? But try to ask a few people, like, do you think I execute on things too quickly or do you think I spent so much time thinking? So these are ways, once again, to kind of gather information about ourselves that might be useful because that question will, you know, the answer that will vary based on the idea and based on the individual, but what will not vary, I think, is the fact that examining how we spend our time, how we make choices and asking others might be helpful for everybody, right? So for me, I know I'm triggered shy on certain things and other things I make decisions too quickly. So I have to work with myself in different ways on different projects or let's say ideas. Anyone want me to elaborate a little bit? These are great questions on this essay, by the way. Anyone else want me to elaborate on anything from the essay or elaborate on anything that you're asking? Any other points in general from the essay? Okay, thank you. That's very useful to know that you are who you are because that name was I'm recognizing. Okay. Cool. Good call. I'm glad we had this conversation. All right, cool. So on that note, let's then go to number one and let's talk a little bit about what Epic T is offering us here. So I think some of this is sort of like let's say general philosophical encouragement. We have I think one or two interesting metaphors here together thinking about purpose and how to stick to it, right? So we can again work with this to see how practical it is and what we can apply from it. Either way, though, I think this is pretty cool, even just these titles, right? So once again, he wrote nothing down. He was a teacher. So I'm again, I'm a little imaginative here, but I think it's cool that his students wrote this. So his students probably, again, were kind of creative and philosophical, of course, in their own right? And, you know, as much as also might be part of the translation from Sharon Lebel, too, I think who does a great job with this translation, they were probably trying to write for themselves, too, which I think is also really cool. So we have Marcus, it really is writing for himself and then we have these students writing for themselves based on what Epic T is just offering them, right? So even just a title, start living your ideals. That's a great piece of encouragement, focus on your main duty, right? Don't major in minors. That's a great way to think about our even our daily lives, right? Clearly define the person who you want to be. And that's even start here because I love these questions, right? If we take these questions seriously, this is a great way to spend some quote-unquote idol time. I've never done air quotes this much in the history of my teaching, I don't know what it's like. Maybe it's because I'm being recorded and I'm, you know, just, I don't know why I think this visual is helpful. Whatever. It's not meaningful. But ultimately, if we spend time with these questions, they might be very meaningful. Good connection. Who exactly do you want to be? What kind of person do you want to be? What are your personal ideals? What do you admire? What are their special traits that you would like to make your own? So that last question is implying that we are all individuals and we can learn from mentors, right? And I think that's a really healthy way of understanding that, right? You could just respect and admire people and that's awesome. That doesn't have to become a negative thing, right? To say make your own implies we'll never be patient the same way, but I think of patience a lot because my father is someone who's very patient and I really admire him for that. And I try to learn from him to be a more patient person. That would answer a lot of these questions, right? Who do I want to be? I want to be a more patient person, right? What are my personal ideals? Well, my personal ideal is that it's good to be industrious, it's good to keep working. But I admire people who also encourage me to stop working, right? And that's a little bit different than patience, but ultimately for me, a lot of my work is self driven. It has to be. As a student, as a professor, I could do things a lot differently than I do them, but I'm intrinsically motivated. I have to learn how to turn that off and be more patient with myself and understand that, okay, things take time, for example, right? So again, these questions get us thinking, I think, very nicely about who we are and that connects to our purpose because ultimately, no matter what we're pursuing, we're pursuing a self, right? We will have a self at the end of whatever we do. So to put purposefully put our gaze to ourselves and purposefully answer these questions, right? I think it's a really interesting exercise, right? So that's one of my favorite parts of this section for sure. And then when you say explicitly, identify the kind of person you aspire to become. And then once again, I have a great practice here. Have a daybook, write down who you're trying to be so you can refer to this self definition. This is really, in my opinion, again, I do this for living, but I think this is a very powerful piece of philosophy, right? He's encouraging us to be precise with who we should be. And how we should act even, describe our demeanor precisely. That's really interesting, right? So we're setting a bar that's clear. Now, this is scary because now it's easier to fail, but it's also more powerful because again, think about the stoic archer. If you can see the target in greater detail, it's obvious that you have a higher likelihood of hitting it. If it's blurry, that's not going to be helpful, right? So we have to keep that in mind. And again, make it private. Don't worry about it. I'm big on this. For example, this is something that kind of pertains to Carmelo's earlier question of how often should we do Eeky Guy? I mentioned again, I'm a big proponent, and I guess not supporters of the word. I'm a big proponent of self writing, right? So I have tons of notebooks over the years that I just keep. So what's really interesting and I may mention yesterday is I'll grab a notebook and sometimes you just bump into stuff. So I'll grab a notebook from four years ago that talked about me doing things that I've done now. And I forgot about them. So I literally wrote them down and you should try to do this, Perry, whatever whatever, right? Write the list, talk about it. And then forget about it as in, just move forward in life. And then I'll read the book, oh shit, like I actually did these things and like I wasn't even consciously trying to do them on a daily basis, right? So the idea behind that is like I defined it clearly and then just put it away and just moved on it. I didn't even consciously return to the book. And he's saying here that you can return to him, I think that's also a great idea. Which again, it's what I did, but it was just years later. So when we define it clearly, it also becomes easier to act on because we know what the constituent elements of this idea are and we know what the ideas are. So again, an argument for clarity and argument for having books and argument for returning to books as ways of encouraging ourselves to create a sense of purpose for establishing a self-definition, right? That's purpose right there saying, I'm going to be this. That's a purpose-oriented thing, in my opinion. I realize I'm like, okay, same thing, sorry, can you prove yourself in that or are we done that? So I think so. These are two questions and I'm glad you put them as two questions, right? So I think that they're related, but they are different. I think self-improvement should be ongoing forever, right? So I think we should, oh, and I think that's how, that's one way life can be very meaningful, right? People stop working if they retire young, I would never suggest that to anybody. I want to do this till I'm dead, right? Because I think having work that's meaningful for us gives life so much meaning, right? And let's say you do retire, right? Well, don't retire and have nothing to do. Retire and have hobbies. Those hobbies will likely in some way shape or form involve improving yourself, right? You're not going to have hobbies that, you know, let's say, hopefully you don't consciously on your own volition, start doing hobbies that damage yourself, right? You want to have hobbies that are healthy that are enjoyable and through that enjoyment, through that healthiness, like, improvement comes from that, right? I think people who consistently challenge themselves through this, they need to stick with this, right? Self-defined challenges, they're usually happy people. Again, please don't misinterpret me as saying like this is, this will definitely make you happy, right? Of course, happiness involves externals as well, have, you know, habits can be affected by chance and all that, of course, it's very important that we mention that. That being said, in the light of, you know, in light of this conversation, I would say, no, it should never come to an end. And I've known elderly, for example, my, my, another person I admire, it's very relevant in this conversation, was my grandfather, right? So he, until he pretty much passed away, it was always trying to improve himself. Until he was physically incapacitated, he would get up every day and exercise, right? Again, challenge himself a little bit, he had like a stationary bike in a medicine ball, and every day he'd wake up and he'd put on his bandoffles, which is like, this is, that's the, it's like a, like the sandals look, that's a beautiful look, right? He would put on, you know, he'd just get into his sandals, go on his bike, in an undershirt, like do his stretches, do some medicine ball, and he loved it, and it was a way for him to every day, kind of improve himself, right? He would read every day, he'd learn, right, so learning is improving ourselves. So it really is, like, something I think we should consider for all our lives, right? We never have to stop trying to improve ourselves in some kind of way. So I think to answer your question, and I elaborate a little bit too much, maybe, I would say, can it come to an end? Yes. Should it? No. The next question is very interesting, too, or we don't have any satisfaction for self-improvements. We can always have satisfaction for self-improvements, right? It goes back to the idea earlier of celebrating the fruits of autumn, right? A fruit of autumn could be that we're lucky enough that we woke up today, right? And that we're lucky enough to stick with the example of exercising at an advanced age. We're lucky enough that we can move, so we take advantage of that luck. And then maybe exercising is something that it's like, oh, I'm grateful I can do this. It's a beautiful thing, right? And this gratitude, too, is like, and this is a little morose, right? But when you go to see anybody in hospice, it's like, oh, I should be grateful that I can read, that I can move, that I can speak. Like, these are all things we might take for granted that all our pathways to self-improvement and satisfaction, right? That again, I think to answer your question, we can always have satisfaction for it. Now there's maybe a difference between, you know, some satisfaction and being absolutely satisfied and saying, oh, I'm done here, I think we should avoid that, because ultimately, we could always strive back to the idea of striving, right? And that striving is actually, I think, where life becomes meaningful. We have a great quote from Albert Kamu, and I'm not going to get it right verbatim. But ultimately what he suggests is that, I think, something like, what is happiness but harmony between a person and the life they lead, right? So the leading of the life, that's the doing things to improve ourselves. That's the doing things that might be painful, but lead to something good. That's the doing things in even making room for our pain and our suffering and seeing that there's something necessary here, there's something, let's say, human here that I shouldn't ignore, right? So the harmony of what we do and, again, it's almost like the image of the self we have and the life we need, we have to make that harmonies, then we get happy, right? So we see ourselves as he's saying here, I'm defining who I should be. Well, that's an image of the self. So I'm defining who I should be, who I am, then if I act in that way, I should feel happy, I should feel good, right? So again, it's in that striving, in that sort of carrying, let's say, carrying the initiative almost through our actions, that we get a good sense of satisfaction. So maybe to put it more simply, and I'm sorry, I'm ranting here, like there's a difference between satisfaction and completion, right? You never want to feel like your process of self improvement is complete because the process is what gives us the meaning, right? So you always want to find little satisfaction during the day, of course. That's a beautiful idea. Always feel good. Even if this is Marcus Aurelius, I think, right? Even the smallest success, celebrate it, right? Always celebrate. And that's, I'm making that a little bit synonymous with be satisfied and be happy about it. Was that good, so cool? Yeah, so Naya, I think that's a powerful concept for sure, right? And one of my favorite quotes, as well from Marcus Aurelius, again, kind of sticking with the stoics here for a little bit, is be healthy and word. So watch what you say, right? Because not only are you saying it, but you also are hearing it. Do you hear yourself, right? So I think I'm a little bit hesitant to say that we speak things into existence. I think it's just a little bit incomplete. Because I think we speak things into existence in the context of like, okay, you're saying it now it's out there in the world. It has a different type of existence. It's got from a thought to a word, to a spoken word, so that's cool. But in terms of like maybe pursuing purpose, I recently read a book called Ego is the Enemy, which is a very interesting book by Ryan Holiday. And he talked about how certain, and I'm not, I apologize, were kind of a cursory overview of this. We basically talked about how certain studies showed that when people were speaking about what they were going to do, they started to trick themselves into thinking that they actually made progress, right? So saying and talking, or saying what you're going to do and talking about your goals is maybe helpful, but we, you know, I would say avoid doing that excessively or avoid the belief that just by saying it, I've made progress towards it, right? So it's helpful, I think, because again, we're seeing our, we're hearing ourselves, which is maybe necessary encouragement, right? But we can't avoid the fact that ultimately it's going to involve some real work. So that's the point he makes in the book. It's like the person who kind of works in silence is probably getting more done than the person who feels the need to speak, because when you're speaking about what you're going to do, you're spending that time not doing the thing, right? So again, I think it's okay here in there to express that, give ourselves words of encouragement, tell others, and maybe even have systems where it's okay, I like to speak it out loud because then maybe I get some encouragement to not let people down. But even that, if it doesn't culminate in actual work, right? Even a big tedious understanding here is saying you're demeanor. That's how you act, not just how you think or what you write or what you say, right? So it all comes down to action. That's Aristotle too, right? It's an action oriented philosopher. You can tell me what you're going to do, but we have to make sure we do it, right? So yeah, I hope that, but again, I'm not against speaking things into existence as a part of that process. I do, I've had mixed, honestly, I've had mixed experience with that. Sometimes it's been helpful. Sometimes I just wasn't really helpful. So again, it depends on the situation, but I hope those perspectives were helpful. Was that Robert Green? No, but Ryan Holiday talks about him a lot. Yeah. And Ryan Holiday, I think, has an interview with him on his podcast. So I'm familiar with who he is, but I haven't read any of his work. But it seems like he has similar opinions from what I can tell at least. Hi, it was that was that a good response. We can move on. Cool, so let's even look at this is short, but beautiful, right? Pursue the good ardently, pursue it passionately, pursue it diligently, define the good again. So what is good for me? What is good for the world? Work on that with yourselves, right? So for me, I actually, last weekend, I used this question to sort of fulfill a purpose of being the healthiest member of my family I could be. I got a little bit angry, but I didn't let myself succumb to the anger where I had a family event and people were talking and I didn't really appreciate what was being said. So instead of getting angry, I kind of thought, what would a good person do right now? And not even that. What would a good person do? Then it went to like, okay, what's what would the best version of me do right now? Well, he wouldn't respond angrily to this. He would just be a little silent and then think about the best way to respond. So that's pursuing the good ardently, I think. I was proud of myself with that. And then also, let's even connect it a little more clearly to this idea of purpose being attached somewhat to productivity, right? You try to do the thing at work, the presentation, it just doesn't go well, right? But you tried your best. So what should we do here? If all your efforts fall short, accept their results and move on. Again, it's not a result-driven philosophy with the stomachs because they see that again, the universe is out of our control. Other people are out of our control. So I think that's healthy, right? Because it asks us to not only accept the results, I'm like, okay, just be angry, but move on and move on towards what? Well, if we're pursuing the good ardently, you're moving on, right, to pursuing the good again, right? So let's go up a little bit, because I think number five, we can talk about later, maybe. Start again, beautiful idea, start living your ideals, right? And this is great because you talked about, you know, stop disappointing yourself. It's easy to not disappoint yourself when you haven't defined yourself, right? So once you define yourself, you have a bar, you set a bar, right? You have an image, and it's necessary to do that, I think, in order to flourish, right? You have to define yourself, again, know yourself is one of the main foundational elements of this class, enough philosophy as a whole, right? So know yourself, your past self, your present self, your future self, create these spiritual purposes, spiritual goals, among other goals and purposes for yourself. And then now we have a way to be disappointed, and that's a beautiful thing, because disappointing yourself doesn't mean you hate yourself. It means I could have done better today. We need those moments, those moments propell us forward to better tomorrow, right? Again, back to the practices chapter I keep referencing. One of the other suggestions from Epic Titus is at the end of the day, we have an honest conversation with ourselves about how we made progress and how we failed. And with kindness, right, you can kindly say, "I could have done better today." That was a little bit ridiculous, or you know what, I didn't put all my soul as we had earlier, right, into that today, I'll do better tomorrow, right? We need to have these things, these conversations. He calls it a spiritual program, you know, it's very cool, right? And when we engage with that, he's saying we're going to be happy as a result of that, because we're working on ourselves, that's an important feeling, okay? Another interesting point here, don't mind if others don't share your convictions, and I think of this in a very simple context, but it's just been something that I dealt with, because of familial and friend pressures, it's like, you try to eat healthy, everybody just gets mad at you. It's like, well, that doesn't make sense to me, but it's like, you know, it's pressure with the food, part of that too is that the way in my family expresses love is through food. And I get that, but sometimes I don't want to have this, and I'm not trying to be rude, and I'm always expressed that kindly, but Epic Titus is saying, "Look, you have your ideals, you have your goals for yourself, you know, you want it, maybe it's a health war or whatever." And you have to be willing to take a little bit of, let's say criticism from people, right? But how long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? That's a question I'm like, you know what? I love you. I'm not going to have the pasta right now, okay? I love you very much. I'm going to have something else, and we're going to all be fine, because I'm focusing on my convictions and my development, my spiritual, in this case, physical program, right? And that's one example, and that's an example that we can connect really easily to spiritual development. Why? Because at the same, I'm the same note of not getting angry with people we love, for example, we could say they're giving us some food there. Your words, I'm consuming them, I'm hearing them, that's a type of food. I'm going to reject that food, I'm not going to eat it, and then let myself get angry too. I'm going to say, "You know what? This is food, I'm going to leave it on the table, I'm not going to let myself become angry by your statement that has angered me. I'm going to get angry, but I'm not going to become angrier. I'm not going to be the angry person at the party. I'm not going to eat the food. I see the pasta. I see your comment. I'm going to walk away from it." Also I'm hungry right now. That's also playing a role here with these analogies, I'm presenting here. Let's go to another analogy. This is great. Ancient Greeks, among, of course, many other cultures, were seafaring individuals. So focus on your main duty, he ends up talking about boats, right? There's a time and a place for diversion and amusement, but you should never allow them to override your true purposes, right? If you're on a voyage, we could even run with this metaphor. We are perhaps, and we could challenge this, but let's say for argument's sake, we're the captain of our own ships, right? Okay. Well, you can't control the ocean. You can't control the weather. That's life. You can choose a direction, you can choose a destination, right? And then you have to deal with the ocean. You can get off the boat as he's saying here in this analogy and explore things, but you can never forget that that boat is calling you. The boat is your purpose in life. And as we have with pain before, sometimes the wind will blow, sometimes the waves will be really tough. That's the pains of life, right? Well, you got to keep the ship going. And maybe the more you go through, the better you get at dealing with the storms, right? The more you keep your eye on the horizon, the more you move towards the horizon, right? But especially when we get off the ship, we can't forget to get back on it, okay? So we have to make sure that we don't miss the call, and then the call is going to be a significant term for our reading for this weekend, right? And I probably won't ask you to read the whole apology. I'll give us a little bit of a lecture on certain key elements that pertain to this chapter specifically. But there are lots of calls, society again, pushing us and pulling us. Socrates says in the apology, he was pretty much called, right? The idea of vocation comes from the word vocare, which means to call, right? That's the kind of the etymology of the word. So he was called by the God, he says, right? He goes to the Oracle. The Oracle communicates to the heavens, and he was called to pursue who was wise in Athens, right? So again, it's a lot of overlap between our conversation about we want to calling, right? And we'll learn a little bit more about how seriously Socrates took this calling, right? And he gets distracted. He says, even if it gets condemned to death, spoiler alert, I get condemned to death. And he's like, you know what? In Hades, I'm going to do this. Even death won't stop me from answering this call to examine and engage with other people to encourage them to care for their souls, right? So again, we'll have some, I think, really interesting reflections here on, and, you know, working with this metaphor a little bit. And even the idea of water, right, in order to go to Hades, it's across a river, the river sticks. And you have a lot of connections that are very interesting. But for number two in today's conversation, right? You are the captain of the ship, perhaps, again, it's just for argument's sake, agree. Don't forget you have to get on that. On that path, right, and stay in that direction and deal with, like, let's say, the storms of life. And the longer you stay on the boat, of course, the more familiar you get with the boat, the more storms you face, the better you get at facing storms, right? Each day, again, you move towards the goal, you're a little bit closer, right? So again, even the metaphor of traveling on a path, once again, comes up with this boat, destinations, right? But it's ongoing, right? It's sort of, again, what we have here, I think. All right. So we're going to call it a class, this is good. Let's make sure we, I'm going to put the homework in the chat for us, okay? And let's call it a class after the homework. Any questions? We're going to stick with on purpose for homework. I'm going to ask that you take a look at the following. Let's take a look at, so we'll do the excited thing is actually an action, no, we'll leave the exercise for class, actually, that might be better. So I'll ask that we do take a look at, well, I was just mentioning Socrates. And this idea of how do we craft a sense of purpose? I think we'll look at the cave, which is, you know, such a seminal, powerful piece from philosophy. Let me just get the page number here. All right. So it's number eight, which is page 34 to 39. I'll do a brief lecture, again, in terms of what I think is relevant to this conversation from the apology as well next class. And then I think what we'll probably do next class will move, oh, okay, here's what we'll do as well. This is great. I ask that you also please read number five. It's a really interesting piece. It's the last couple of pages of Albert Camus, the myth of Cicifus. And it gets us thinking about the process of process, it really works, I think, quite nicely for this notion we've confronted today of like sustaining a sense of purpose. Enjoying it too, like learning to enjoy even the difficult moments of the pursuit. So that's page six to page eight. And as we had earlier in class, we have our first assignment due Sunday at midnight. I will see everybody on Tuesday. It's a great class. I really appreciate it. And also please check blackboard. All right. I'll put the recordings up. I have to go with the haircut. So I'll probably do it. I'll try to do it before I go. I'll leave you the haircut. We'll be there this afternoon, all right. So so if you listen to the first recording I'll post on blackboard, I describe the assignment for us. And it's also on the syllabus too. Camel, do you have a question specifically? By that, Carmelo, do you mean, okay, yeah. So check that, yeah. Check that recording. And of course, if you have questions email me, I'll do my best to get back to you. And I've been pretty good about it recently. So get out of this and again, if you have questions I'll do my best and I shall be able to get back to you pretty quick, right. So that being said, thank you all for coming once again. I will see everybody Tuesday at 9 a.m. And look out for those videos on blackboard, all right. Have a great weekend. Thank you, enjoy your weekend. All right, so what we're going to be focusing on mostly today. Also just to be clear, I watched the other videos that I posted to blackboard and I always start off by saying, all right, so I need to change that, I'll work on it. That being said, today we're thinking with on purpose. So we're going to be looking mostly at the myth of Sisyphus, which I assigned for homework and Play-Dose Cave. And in addition to that, I'm going to be doing some very, let's say, cursory or sort of brief commentary on the apology, which we didn't do for homework reading because it's again summer class, we're a little bit tight for time here. That being said, I do think there are some key points I would like to highlight for us in a lecture that get us thinking about purpose in a broad sense like what is the purpose or what is my purpose in society, what maybe should I consider as a part of my purpose, what should I prioritize in that context, I think, socrates gives us some really interesting thoughts on that. And also I think he gives us some good ideas about how we can construct a healthy and full sense of purpose for our work together in this class. So that being said, as we usually will do, I want to give us some time to work on the philosophical meditation in the chapter on purpose or on crafting a pursuing purpose. So let's take a quick 10 minutes and I will share my screen for us in one moment here and we'll take a look at some questions. And again, as we said, I suggest taking this opportunity to practice some self-writing. This will now be the second or third time we're doing this. So I want to start encouraging us to be more comfortable with writing our thoughts on each question. We'll see that kind of as a recurring theme of the class, right? This encouragement to adopt a practice, I mean, one of which or a part of your practice can be this notion of writing with ourselves as the subject of our thinking and writing and reflecting. So let's try to keep that in mind. I'll present my screen now and try to address these questions for yourselves and then we'll return to the homework and some more bibliotherapy in a few minutes. Did we look at these already or not? I don't think so, right? Which is the first page? And if ever we're in the meditation section and they look familiar, just let me know in the chat and I'll scroll down for us, right? So do these look familiar or are these new? First 30. Okay. Cool. Thank you, Carmelo. So let's go to 31. Let's take a look at these. All right. I appreciate that. All right. We have a lot of time and I look forward to hearing from everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So that's our quick 10 minutes for meditation. Let me quickly switch my screen. And we'll get into a little bit of the bibliotherapy for the day. All right. One second here. All right. All right. All right. So for our bibliotherapy today, I mentioned this last class. This is another set of exercises or questions here ultimately. But I do think it's giving us a really interesting direction. And I like to spend a little more time. I'll elaborate a little bit on this before we take time to work on this ourselves. But we're looking here at number nine on page 39. It starts. Right. So I think one of the things we talked about with the idea of purpose. And we talked about this notion of personal fulfillment in the context of vocation. Right. So vocation again, being personal fulfillment and public service. We want both. So at number nine, I think we could have a meaningful conversation within ourselves about personal fulfillment. Right. Because ultimately number nine, as we're seeing here on my shared screen, right, is asking us what am I presently excited about? I'm not presenting right now. I just realized that. Sorry. Give me a second. So we're looking at this exercise from Alan Deboutan's book Self Knowledge. And it's asking us to analyze and think about what excites us in life. Okay. And what he's suggesting here is that excitement is a curious kind of signpost to new directions we might take. Usually in our working or personal lives. So he's talking about excitement as an impulse that's going to help us grow and develop. Right. He's encouraging us to practice this type of introspection so we can come to know what excites us, how we can act on it, and how that might be significant for us. Right. So another set of questions he has here on page four that I think will help us elaborate on this a little bit. Right. We think about this excitement. Right. And we think if this attractive experience, it might be a view, a book, a place, a biography could talk. What might it want to tell me? Who is it inviting me to be? So it means a process exciting thing. The thing that gets us excited. Right. If other parts of life were more like this, how might things go? Anything that arouses our curiosity or yields a certain pleasure is providing data. In a slightly legible form, which is why we practice introspection to make it more legible, understandable, right. Make it more clear about something important missing or in short supply in our lives. We should pause to acknowledge the direction we are being in articulately, but perhaps wisely pointed towards. Right. So ultimately, this is, you know, very similar to what we do in our meditations, of course. It's tuning into this idea of excitement in an introspective, self-reflective way. Right. So as I encourage, if you minutes ago with the meditation, right. It's the self-ass subject. So in this exercise, we're not only acknowledging what excites us, right. We're also interpreting it. Right. So you want to sort of list several things that have caught our attention. Let's even just say recently. And or like in our childhood, even, right. So we can sort of think about it in different time frames. And think about, again, this idea of exciting our interests. And I think even, for example, it might be meaningful Carmelo, you mentioned you're a basketball coach, right. So even thinking about what initially got you excited about pursuing that as a role you wanted to, you wanted to sort of fulfill, right. Or the idea is that we're attracted to in terms of how you embody that role. So there are moments that are significant in our memories of excitement that propelled us forward. We can think about those. And I think it also could be very meaningful to think about what in our present life even today, which ideas are, you know, appear to be exciting to us. So the idea, again, would be for him to kind of keep questioning it, right. So we have a list here of other questions that I think might be really helpful with this. If you could realistically change your life in certain ways, what would it be to change in the light of this, right. So as a result of these things that excite you, what changes, and this is so great, right. Because we're going from thinking theoretically to a very practical understanding of what excitement can mean for us, right. What would actually mean, what would I change, what actions would be different in my daily life. I think it's another interesting way of seeing this question. Then another one, if this thing could try to change your life, what changes might it advise. So this is cool because it's almost like you're, let's say, you're turning that, again, maybe it's a view, maybe it's a book that excited you into an interlocutor, right. So again, we're really, I think, feeling and seeing the connection to the philosophical meditation approach, which is also why it's great to do this exercise in conjunction or in addition to talking about Socrates, right. Because famously, as we'll see, we're reading dialogues from Socrates. So him and his interlocutor, or the person he was speaking with, would go back and forth and basically pursue meaning together through questioning, right. Through dialogue, through engaging with one another in, let's say, kind of like almost like a grappling match, right. To a large extent, I think we could stick with that metaphor for Socrates. So yeah, we're doing a little bit more of that to be a therapy, but I do think this will be interesting, an interesting exercise for us, right. And again, we're always keeping in mind with this chapter how we're attaching it to our sense of purpose. And I also think this is very exciting, or obviously that was kind of a, we're talking about excitement, right. I think it's interesting, too, to think about this in the context, not only is it maybe discovering a new path in life, but also revitalizing our excitement for the path that we're currently on, right. So maybe this will facilitate a change. You know, I'm not that excited about what I'm doing, but this excites me, let me think about this more. How can I change and shape and mold myself and my choices and my thinking, feeling and acting in this regard, right. And in a maybe slightly different path, maybe you realize that, you know, you've already established some really interesting, let's say daily habits that connect to this idea of excitement. And so we're maybe again, revising and changing our path, or we're revitalizing the path wrong. Either way, it's good to be excited, and the best really be excited perhaps is to open ourselves up to the idea that we can face ourselves, right. And see what excites us, what doesn't, and how we can kind of cultivate that excitement. So on that note, I want to give us a few minutes here, once again, to kind of dive into what they were honestly just ing. Yeah, let's all check in maybe in five to 10 minutes, and then we'll, we'll kind of open the four for discussion about how these ideas might connect to the myth of Sisyphus and to play those caves. Right, so let's take a few minutes here again, I do think this is a really interesting exercise. I love the idea of excitement, can I do purpose and kind of fueling each other in a way, kind of in a reciprocal way. So let's take a few minutes and please do prepare a little bit for a good discussion, all right. So I'll check in in a few. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Okay, so hope that was interesting. All right, it was a quick kind of seven minute meditation on once again this idea of excitement, trying to work on the details of that. The clearer we see it, the more powerful it'll be, right. And again, we want to be excited about our sense of purpose, our sense of vocation, our sense of eke guy, which we already discussed last class as well, right. So on that note, are there any questions from the meditation you'd like to call our attention to, prefer to put a number in the chat. Once again, we can now sort of start moving towards or into a lecture on the homework reading. So if you saw a connection between the cave and the questions or the excitement, exercise, or if you see connections between the myth of cicitis. And some of the questions we can definitely sort of start moving in that direction as well. So take a minute, right? I could even share the meditation screen for us. Is there anything you'd like to discuss or once again, you share your elaborations or maybe I will elaborate a little bit from the meditations or from the homework reading or the exercise we just did. I'll present the meditations. Anybody? And again, there's only two people here right now. So I apologize. This is kind of like a high pressure or, you know, don't worry about it, but it would be nice to hear from people. Okay, so yeah, Nia, you enjoy cicitis. It's cool. Is there anything specifically that stood out to you as interesting or, again, maybe a quote might be a lot to ask for right now because we're going to look at the reading more, let's say in depth in a few minutes, but what exactly if possible from for that reading stood out to you. So if you don't mind, I'll run in I'll run in the direction here a little bit, and Carmelo gets that in a second, but for me, the site, one of the ideas I got from cicitis, I think when I was making these questions was this notion of like the impossible goal. Right, because cicitis ultimately, you know, and we'll get into it, of course, in more detail, he's not going to reach the top of the mountain. Right, as we as we read, right, that the whole plot is essentially he's pushing this rock up and down, right, he's damned, he's condemned for eternity by the gods, or he's trying to steal death from the gods, trick the gods, fool the gods, kind of, you know, in a, you know, let's say like, you know, kind of an overly proud person, right, full of hubris, one of the smartest among the Greeks, right, thought he could trick the gods when he was allowed to go back up onto earth. He kind of fell back in love with being alive and tried to fool them and the gods are okay, no, the ancient Greek, you know, mythological kind of like they loved eternal punishments, right. So it was like an interesting, interesting thing to consider at the end, the notion of what usefulness these myths might have played in ancient Greek society, right. I don't, I haven't researched this, but I think it's interesting to consider, you know, the moral of this story, right, don't think you're smarter than you are, it is one potential moral. And then what we get from Kamu is this really interesting philosophical interpretation from his absurdist point of view, right, this idea that, you know, the ideas of meaninglessness, the notions of, you know, the necessity for Kamu and we'll get more into this, of course, for all of us to make our own meaning in life. Right, he sees Cicifist as heroic to a large extent, right. So ultimately, this idea of an impossible goal is to encourage us to maybe embody the notion that we are all Cicifists, right. So adopt a goal that will never reach actually might be a pathway to the optimally meaningful life, because we'll always have something to do, right, which is to say from the analogy a bit, right, we'll always have a rock to push. Right, one of the great quotes from the Cicifist that I'll highlight in the chat for us right now is, one always finds one's burden again, always finds one's burden again. And the idea of the burden, well, that's the rock. So the idea maybe is that when we're under the rock and we're making some sort of progress toward a perceived aim towards, again, even think up and down, right, it's the ascent, it's the going up, that process of just taking each step, that's where the fulfillment, that's where the purpose lies, right. That's where the sense of, let's say even we could say joy and he talks about happiness, right, happiness might exist if we adopt a Cicifist consciousness, or even we could say a Cicifist ontology, a Cicifist way of being. Right, because as we said, I think you're not going to graduate from Lehman and hang out in your cap and gown on campus, or, you know, get a job and then just kind of relax at the job, but you're going to always we need something to do, something to pursue, we need a burden, this kind of what Kammu I think is implying there that we always find the burden again. Right, and for him that may and now we're getting into a little bit of a lecture on absurdism, which is cool because I'm recording us, I'm not going to put this in the chat, right. But for him, you know, in the face of the fact for him, you know, the universe is chaotic, it's neutral, it's meaningless, it's orderless. We have to make all of those things because we yearn for it, we want those things. And we kind of look at the universe and it's just like not there. Right, so for Kammu, we're grappling with this meaninglessness, with this neutrality of a blank kind of chaotic universe. And we want our lives to be meaningful, right. So one quote that's attributed to Kammu, that, you know, I think it's a little bit questionable whether he said it, but it's interesting nonetheless. And this is tough to hear, but we'll examine it, right. He would, you know, again, attribute it to him. I wake up and I think coffee or suicide, that's a famous quote, right. And I think ultimately, if we examine it, right, there's a number of really interesting points here. To wake up and there's different ways to understand suicide for Kammu, right. So examine this. Now we don't read the first chunk of this essay, the myth of Sisyphus, but ultimately it starts off talking about suicide, right. The only real philosophical sort of, let's say, point of inquiry of meaning for Kammu, or even say philosophical problem maybe, right. Is suicide, right, which is, I think to say, if you're choosing to live, it's because we at least understand that we can have the capacity for a meaningful life, right. So there's the, that's the physical suicide aspect of it. And there's also the sense for Kammu that there's such a thing as philosophical suicide, which again, I'm giving you and I apologize for giving kind of an overview of these really rich points. But I think the main point of that among a couple other points is like, if for Kammu, you give up your capacity, you don't flex the muscle, let's say that makes your life meaningful for you. You kind of put your meaning into like, let's say other, other modes, right, aside from the self, that's philosophical suicide for Kammu, right. So Cisophis is, for Kammu is active in his ability, right, as he says to the face that toil so close to stone becomes stone itself. So by getting under the rock, by pushing it himself, he's making a self, by not allowing the gods to punish him, right. Because at the end of the essay, he says, right, we must imagine Cisophis happy, and in so doing, it's sort of like he transcends his own condemnation, his own punishment. You're not punishing me if I don't think I'm being punished, it is what that ultimately I think is trying to convey, right. So he can even, you know, transcend or go beyond the gods in a sense, right. Epic Titus, you know, coming thousands of years before, it kind of highlights a similar point. And of course, we could all, this is a very interesting point of contention, right, whether we can agree or disagree with this. But for Epic Titus, he says, no, not even Zeus can affect my will, it's mine, right. And we can interpret that maybe more so. I think to kind of reach, maybe let's say a more acceptable point, maybe Epic Titus, we can interpret that as saying, you know, my inner disposition is my own. The external world is not mine, but my perception of it, my reaction to it internally is within my control. So that's, we see, you know, some interesting similarities, of course, Epic Titus and Ancient Greek philosopher and Sisyphus and Ancient Greek myth, right. So we see some interesting potential perspectives here, right. Ancient Greeks and then Camus commenting on them, trying to grab it with this notion of what does it mean to have the capacities to cultivate itself, right. So Sisyphus is, you know, again, is condemned to this meaningless text, the gods are controlling him seemingly, right. And yet not really for Camus, right. Because as he says too, you know, if the descent can happen, I'm sorry, if the other sense can happen happily, you think you're making progress. You can also maybe enact some control over whether or not you smile when you're walking down the mountain, right. Which is maybe to say metaphorically for us in the context of the plashing, a philosophy, the art of thriving, Sisyphus's philosophy might be a pathway for us to flourish more, right. It's a, in a stoic context too, perhaps, or not context in a stoic sort of way of thinking, right. It's definitely not about results. Nobody signing up for this, right. No one's like, oh, you're going to push your rock, you know, work all this time, right. With this pressure of a boulder, you'll never reach the plateau, which of course is easier. You'll never really have to, or be able to push the rock downhill. You're going to be under this constant pressure. And then on top of that, you have to watch yourself fail. No one signing up for that. But for Camus, it's like by being alive, we're all signed up for that. Because for him, the universe is, you know, is it really going to give you this neatly packaged? Oh, here's love. And you can rely on this, right. I think part of this too, in the way I reconcile, maybe some of my own interpretations of Camus idea that, you know, the universe is chaotic, and it's meaningless, and it's orderless, right. Is that, you know, it might be so purposeless that at times we do think it has purpose. Right. So being devoid of order to me, almost to to some extent, again, for Camus, we're making that sense of order. Right. But I think that to say that it's impossible that it has its moments where we might sense its orderliness is almost to disagree with the philosophy. Right. Because even in chaos, again, maybe we can argue from Camus perspective that we have to be able to discern, which is to say, understand, which then falls back on to us. Right. But let's even say for a moment, and again, to kind of reconcile his absurdist view with maybe the view that there is is some sense of order or destiny. Right. So kind of moving maybe a little bit into a middle ground, at the very least I would say, you know, would we argue or would you agree with the idea that the universe can be relied upon on a consistent basis to give us these meanings that we yearn for. Right. Is there maybe a degree of absurd absurdity to it? Is it completely absurd? Like Camus saying, right. So we can grapple with this, I think, in different ways. Right. Canon absurd universe, perhaps exists in in addition to a benevolent higher power. Right. So again, all things we can kind of all points of, let's say, contention or slightly different perspectives on this idea. But I think for Camus, the notion is, you know, among others in terms of applying it to our work and the art of thriving. Right. Cisifus, as I said, is the absurd hero. If he sees himself as the absurd hero. Right. If he can acknowledge that in fact his task is his. If he takes ownership over this. Right. And Camus gives us these great analogs. Right. The idea of a blind man. We'll talk about that a little bit later. The idea of the working person. Right. I think, you know, one of the greatest things we can imply is like, we're all Cisifus. As I said, right. Maybe not, again, to maybe reconcile for those of us who don't agree, for example, the universe is only chaotic. Right. I think it's safe to say, and I could say it's with some confidence. Right. At moments, we'll feel like Cisifus. Right. At moments, our lives may seem empty of meaning. And we might want to search elsewhere. You know, it's I think a simple example of perhaps of the philosophical suicide. And it's very simple and that they think it might work. Right. I go to class because I have to go to class. Why? Well, my professor is going to take attendance. Okay. You're giving away your own ability to say why the class might be meaningful to you. You're blaming me for your presence. Right. Why do that? Part of what makes us so powerful is that we can confront the potential meaninglessness of life and ask questions and move and think and feel in new ways. We can at least try, I think, to direct. Right. When we start saying, well, I have to. And we don't feel that sense of obligation with something good. Maybe we're just kind of giving away our power. Right. And Cisifus really isn't saying, well, you know, I'm going to feel pushing the rock. I'm not happy about this. The gods have condemned me. Right. He's not saying I do this because of the gods condemnation. Right. He can adopt a new perspective and there's power in that perspective. And a lot of times I do think our perspectives, you know, I think at the very least have a tendency to impact the way we think and feel. And the way we think and feel often has, you know, connections where we act and then again, where we act connects back to those things. Right. So ultimately for Cisifus, we have to take pride in understanding perhaps from a camo perspective that as humans, we can construct our own sense of meaning. We can be, and again, I'm working to sort of represent a camo, but also add to it in a way that could potentially be applicable to all of you in the most sort of helpful way possible. Right. At the very least, maybe see ourselves as the starting point of the conversation about wildlife and how life can be meaningful. Right. Again, it goes to put all of this meaning making elsewhere in the hands of others, whether it's other individuals like a teacher or even in other belief systems or in other systems of belief that are, you know, again, we can maybe use them as let's say philosophical boats and, you know, kind of getting through life instead of teaching ourselves to swim. Right. We're giving our power away for camo and maybe for him also we're creating expectations of the universe that aren't true. And that's why he might see it as philosophical suicide. We're giving up again on cultivating the capacity to see yourself as the meaning maker. And that's a powerful capacity. Right. And again, for those of us who might be people of faith, there may be ways to reconcile this. Right. Perhaps we can argue from, I think I may have mentioned roomy a little bit already, right. The Islamic mystic. One of his poems, I think, really so highlights the notion of kind of, you know, a co-creator model. Right. He essentially says, look, there is a higher power. There is a God. We can we can and should work to pursue virtue, which once again, he talks about a ladder connects right back to Sisyphus, pushing up a mountain. Right. We see similar sort of so mastetic or like bodily functions that you're going up. And there's a physical, there's a physicality to it. Right. Roomy is basically saying like, you know, we have to plant the seeds and see what grows. Right. There's a responsibility. He's asking us, you know, to say the old kind of, let's say the cliche of it's in God's hands. Roomy might remind us, look like you have to climb the ladder with your hands. Right. I think Kamu is coming from a, at least to some extent, a similar part of you where it's like you have hands. Make meaning. Right. Sisyphus has his hands, his face, his shoulder up against the rock. And that relationship is where his meaning exists if he says on becoming stone too. And I'm happy about that. Right. So we can see the ladder. We can see the mountain. We can see the boulder. Right. We have to then take some degree of control for roomy and Kamu. And again, very arguable points, perhaps. Right. But for these thinkers, I think, you know, we have to see ourselves as responsible. And even Sisyphus, we could argue. Right. He's in that position because of the gods. He has his rock and his mountain because of the gods. So again, interpreting the, the, the myth from Kamu's perspective, you know, he can, Sisyphus can sort of, you know, transcend the punch from the gods, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they don't exist. Or it doesn't necessarily, again, from this interpretation, maybe, right. He can negate the gods, but is it negating the gods as the gods or is it negating the will of the gods? Is he freeing, freeing himself from, you know, their, their dominion from their control. Although there may be a slight difference there, right. Or maybe if they don't control them, they don't exist him. Right. And I say, maybe because again, we have to interpret it from what may be useful to us as individuals, right. But nonetheless, we have this image of, you know, for Kamu of a chaotic, meaningless task that fits into his absurdist view of a chaotic, meaningless universe. And individual place in a scenario where they have to make meaning around this meaninglessness. I think I'm going to get some advice in more details and I'll share this screen in a moment from Sisyphus. But all of this comes to mind for me when we look at 38, right. The impossibility of the goal keeps us moving towards a goal. Right. The idea that at times we'll accomplish something and strangely enough, we might feel happy for a moment. But then the next moment that follows might be a profound sense of emptiness because it wasn't necessarily the result that we needed, right. As Sisyphus again, you know, currently blind results here for him, right. It was the process itself. So one thing I mentioned last class, I think is that this reading gets us thinking about our process of process. Right. And how that connects to purpose. So to have an impossible goal might be to say I'm setting myself up for the greatest success in being happy and fulfilled and having a purpose driven life. Right. And we had that great idea from Kamu. I think I presented already that that quote, right. What is happiness, but harmony between a person and a life they lead while the leading of a life that's pushing the rock. Right. The time we feel most alive might be when we have over in our lives are imbued with the sense that we're under some kind of let's say benevolent pressure. Right. Those might be the moments of the most fulfilling when we give ourselves standards and we give ourselves duties and obligations and paths to walk towards and it's the walking it's the being midstrive where we're most fulfilled again as Sisyphus is the absurd hero. And when we feel fulfilled for Kamu, we transcend the chaotic and meaningless nature of the universe because fulfillment is to cultivate meaning. Right. That sense of fulfillment is to say my life is meaningful. So let's see. I was a bit of a rant there. Sorry. Hope it was useful. Yeah. So so now that's the cool for me. That's one of coolest parts of this essay like and again, it's like the other myth you're mentioning you're encountering of myths, right. The other myth I think of is like tantalists, right. More or less like the gods or torture in this person, you know, with like a fruit tree. He's starving and every time he goes to reach for the pair or the orange or whatever that seems in reach. The gods pulled the branch back just enough so he misses it. I mean, this is terrifying stuff, right. I mean, again, the ancient Greeks love these things, the idea of the eternal punishment. So Kamu with this essay, again, I love this essay for a few reasons, but one of them is like, I love that he's taking this perspective on it, right. Really, really interesting sort of 180 on it, right. So I agree with you now. Yeah, that's that's. And we can even examine him like do we agree with Cicifist as being heroic and I think maybe give a overly simplistic interpretation, right. Of Cicifist as hero, I think we ultimately admire people who in tough times enjoy themselves. Of course, but I mean, you know, not at the expense of others, right. Even think about it. I love this idea. He presents up the working person, right. I was a I was a waiter. I was a bus boy and a waiter when I first got a college, right. And this is again, maybe an overly simplistic example, but I was like, okay, I have to fold 400 napkins. So I could either do that happily and like make a game out of it. Or I could be like, this doesn't mean anything to me. I don't want to do it. Right. I'm here just for the money. And I realized the more I embrace the idea of like making a game out of it or trying to do each one perfectly. The more my days took on at least a little bit more meaning and that meaning kind of gave me a sense of purpose and that purpose made me at least a little bit happier. Right. So the idea process of process, we can think about our process of approaching tasks. We could think about our and that's task little T and task big T. So the task of having a meaningful life, big deal. We can break that down though, right. Day to day. How do we approach the idea of confronting meaninglessness, right. How do we not fall prey to that. Well, I think for Camus again, this is not simply encouragement, which I think it is in a meaningful way, but there are some practical notions in here, right. The idea that again, we can see our tasks as shaping us and then that could feel meaningful. And that's even something I'm doing this week. I think I may mention I'm looking for apartments now and I hate like filling on applications, but I'm very proud of myself this morning. I got up early and I just want applications and it was the comments I've ever been while filling them out because I repurposed it. It's not just about playing out the application and then applying for the apartment and again, you know, especially now who knows if you're going to get it. These are moving really quickly and or nobody's leaving, right. Due to circumstances. So it's a little bit difficult, but I'm repurposing it. It's like, you know what, I'm not going to let this anger me because I want to not be angry today. And then I'm also I'm training myself to like just learn how to do this. I need to grow in this way. I need to grow in this regard. Do I think this is the best way to spend my time today? No. I'd rather be preparing to teach. I'd rather be reading for school or a few other things, right. But ultimately, the obstacle is the way. Right. So I'm like, you know what? It's the way today. This relatively small obstacle or, you know, pain and neck. This is actually a pathway to growth. If I control myself, if I don't let myself get angry, right. So maybe in this very, you know, again, simple way, I'm embodying specific and again, he's asking us to consider our tasks as things that we can think. I think I've in our own way. Right. The person who can maybe repurpose their daily life to leading towards their growth and enjoyment versus again, feeling condemned. That's a happier person. Right. So it's about cultivating a certain relationship with the universe. And again, maybe you agree or, you know, at least to some extent agree with things being chaotic, meaningless. Right. Maybe things don't have inherent meaning. Maybe we're making all this meaning. Well, okay. Even if it's not all but some, that's a good skill to have. Because folding napkins might seem meaningless, but it doesn't have to. If I ask myself to make something out of it. Right. Or again, with the applications today, and I'm feeling out of bunch of them. Right. It just seems repetitive. Well, I'm getting good at doing repetitious things that I don't want to do. That's actually pretty useful because that's sort of what a lot of life can be at sometimes. Yeah, that sentence was okay. Let's go. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I missed. Carmelo, number 44. Let's take a look at this. Carmelo, do you want to elaborate a little bit or. We want me to jump in a little bit here. Number 44. What events had been your greatest teachers? What did you learn from them? You could write about that all day. You could take a day to write, I mean, more than a day. Right. I'm being facetious. But that's, I think those are some really powerful questions. Right. And even today, this is interesting too. And this is very, I think kind of in line with stuff, thinking again. Right. What if you looked at everything as a teacher? Everything. What, what if the first thing you thought to yourself when you were getting frustrated or stressed or anxious or angry was? What is this trying to teach me right now? Which is maybe another way of saying that was, you know, what can I learn from this? So again, for me today, I, there's not much to, I mean, let's say seeming there's not a lot to learn. I'm just like putting my social career number and stuff. But I'm like, you know what? No, this is my teacher is teaching me how to remain calm. I have to work on that generally. Here we go. Feeling better now because I'm growing. We like the feeling that we're growing. We like to feel that we're moving towards something. Once again, that's pacifist moving towards something. I'll never be there, right. Which isn't to say, maybe we'll hold on. I would like to think I could always become a more patient and calmer person, especially given the fact that I know myself and those traits are not something that let's say I seem to have inherently as much as other traits. Right. So the moving forward towards a desired aim is actually where once again, we get our sense of fulfillment and meaning and we should always be developing ourselves. Right. That's something I think we did talk about last class to the impossible goal for me is I want to be just a super calm person that's never going to happen. And I'm okay with that. But pursuing it, I'll get closer. I'll benefit everybody around me will benefit. Right. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I kind of jumped in there. But do you want to say anything about 44? And I think, you know, Carmelo, again, I jump in whenever you want or pose up in the chat whenever you want. Okay, guys in the chat here. Yeah, it's similar when it's punishment if you think it's punishment if you're always looking to see how it goes to teachers. Yeah. So, and again, I want to be very clear about this too, Carmelo, because I agree with your point that it's about the perspective. Sisyphus's punishment is not a punishment if you've used it as something else. Right. As we said earlier, and of course, there are some things that are objectively terrible. Right. I think Epic Titus coming from the life he had as a slave also, you know, saw that and he obviously he freed. He was freed and he became a teacher very well known in the ancient Greek world. Right. He had to make a life in horrible circumstances. Right. There are examples of prisoners of war who reference how powerful stoicism was for them in maintaining some degree of of let's even say stability in these horrifying circumstances. Right. So, it's not to say that certain circumstances aren't horrible. It's I think to some degree, and this might be naive, right. But I think ultimately what Epic Titus would encourage us to consider what the individuals who were prisoners of war who used Epic Titus among other stoics to in those horrifying circumstances create some semblance or sense of peace would be to encourage us in an aspirational sense that in tough circumstances. We we one don't have to become in every one of those circumstances. Again, I I like to I don't like the word never and always except for certain situations, right. Of course, there are some things we should never do or some things we should try to never think. Of course, right. That being said, right. I think what we're actually asking here is again how to what degree can we control our perspectives. The ways we think and feel maybe in this case more so such that we do the best we can for ourselves and others. Right. So, if it's only hurts himself. If he says I'm being punished, this is horrible, right. So why not shift the perspective. Again, the prisoner of war was saying ultimately the stoics helped him survive these terrible punishments. They were his refuge in this terrifying state, right. I think we can think for a moment about people of faith who again, this is not something can move it necessarily. I don't think encourage strongly, but just for a momentary, maybe move away from his philosophy, right. I think faith can become very powerful in circumstances, you know, in terms of very, very difficult circumstances. It might help us maintain some semblance of inner peace, right. So just I'm trying to address Carmelo's point here of this power of perspective as kind of an internal game, right. It's not irrelevant that we work to cultivate healthy, honest, joyful perspectives. And of course, we in addition to that cultivate our morality that we treat others justly, right. Yeah, so I appreciate that, Carmelo. And all that, you know, falls in line with what our purposes should be in terms of who we are as people, which is also what Cicif is doing here. Cicif is not going to be the guy at the top of the mountain with the boulder, but doesn't mean that he also as a result of that can't be a happy guy walking down the mountain. Right. So it's also back to the stances for a moment, the confusion of in some circumstances, a result and this idea again of the internal self, the person who's unshakable, right, can win or lose or let's say more unshakable than the next person, right, can win or lose and then go and train the next day. Right. They don't see themselves as a loser. They don't see themselves again in Cicif as is case as being punished and in so doing their heroic why because they're moving beyond perhaps with the universe is telling them when they're making their own better meaning that will serve them and serve others. Right. So we have this Cicif is meaning making kind of imperative here, let's say. Yeah. And in addition to that impossible goal question, right, the idea of what will be your next achievement that also just, you know, in a kind of very cliche way that keeps the ball rolling. Right. And again, it creates almost like a map for fulfillment. As long as we have a healthy relationship to it, right, if we pressure ourselves or we set goals that are too high, that can be a problem. Of course, right. So we want to monitor that. But ultimately, you know, by achievement, we have to even maybe work to define that and achievement doesn't have to be, you know, work related or school related even an achievement could be I was more patient today. That's actually great achievement, right. And I really, I mean that 100% right. So working to kind of, let's say unpack what that might mean for each and every one of us is meaningful in and of itself, I think. Yeah. So that seemed to be the few questions we covered today. And thank you for these comments. Let me see if I missed any. Yeah. So Carmel, the idea of things become repetitive and mundane, right. I think that's a part of what he's trying to say to with the working person, right. Camera also, I love this idea. You know, you wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, take a lunch break, go back to work, go home, eat dinner, go to sleep, life can become empty. Right. When we're going to be a little bit of the play, he talks about the city Iran and it's sort of just like this, this lifeless city where people are obsessed with, you know, commerce, making money and business and we'll see that come up today in the apology too. And if we don't reevaluate our priorities, life just becomes, you know, it becomes, let's say, more easily nihilistic, it becomes more easily meaningless, but we can be vigilant over that. I think philosophy can play a tremendous role in helping us wake ourselves up to the meanings of life, right. We don't want to become numb to the people in our lives who love us, who offer us joy just because they're around us all the time. That's a dangerous thing, right. Camu, you know, in the place of people love in this city without knowing much about it. Well, that's a problem, right. We should always work to cultivate a sense of, let's say appreciation and again, awaken us to our daily lives, to the beauty that we see every day, that we hear every day, that we smell every day, to the wonders of the fact that we're even here, right. These are all really interesting points that he's raising that I think, you know, I think even since this gets us going in this direction, because Camu is like, fight that Monday feeling, right. In my opinion, right. One of his other great ideas, you know, the absurd can strike at any moment if he for open to it. Right. But it's about that openness and it's about that. Let's say that that maybe even for today's conversation to us about how do we keep ourselves excited, not necessarily in the sense of even just, you know, positive excited, but just to be awake, to be excited by what the world presents to us and what we present to ourselves within our own imaginations. Right. So that that mundane is, you know, it's a problem. We can't fall prey to that, right. So again, this is like push your rock, but make it your own, make your own meaning with it. Right. Keep the ball rolling. Stay excited about something about today's tasks. Right. The idea of, of not it's like being compelled, I think, is a very interesting idea. Would you like to elaborate that a little bit more? Because I think the idea being compelled to it connects nice to this notion. Camu presents of Sisyphus having autonomy. Right. Again, and not only, you know, or maybe that's not the right way to start the sentence. I think for Camu, once again, Sisyphus can be cultivating a self in the face of the meaningless task, right. He can as it was had earlier with the last line of the essay, we have to imagine him happy. And in so doing, he becomes heroic. So there is a sense that he's compelled within himself, I think, that we can create that sense of being compelled. There's also, I think, a powerful notion for Camu. I think this was, I'm sorry, if I'm, I might even be Ms. Gordon, myself, I'm as far as, but I think it was props that said, you know, sometimes you don't, and I'm not coordinates verbatim, right. But I think I'll get the idea across. Sometimes it's not about seeing new things. Sometimes it's about having new eyes. Right. The way we look at things changes what we see. Right. So if you have a habit of, let's say in the morning, getting up and giving yourself something positive to do and something positive to think about, I would argue that that would be helpful in being more optimistic throughout the day. So if you're confronted with a problem, the problem will likely seem smaller. If you feel more, more fulfilled, more ready, more confident as a result of some type of morning meaning making habit, right. The way we see changes what we see in some cases, I think. And that's also a part of what I think Camu is asking us to consider with his description of specifics. So you know what, I think at this point, too, let's maybe jump into the reading a little more specifically. This is a good opening conversation, I think. And let's see what we have left to cover, right. So let me show my screen. Sorry, one second. All right. So as we said, right, we don't have to worry. I don't think too much about the plot, but he's in the underworld, he's pushing a rock for eternity up and down. Right. And as we have right now, I love that Naya, you mentioned, I appreciate it, right. You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. So we're taking a heroic approach to this character. Okay. Why his squirre of the gods is hatred of death and his passion for life, won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted towards accomplishing nothing. Right. So this is to me, it's the signs very impactful. Right. He loves life. Camu, you know, again, famously says supposedly, right. Coffee or suicide. He didn't say water or suicide. Coffee makes you do stuff. Coffee wakes you up. Right. Coffee helps you give, you know, helps you create that sense of attentiveness, that sense of readiness, that action oriented existence. Camu, you know, wanted us. I think, you know, as much as we'll talk about Memento Mori, we'll also talk about Memento Vivore and like the idea that we have to go out and live. Camu himself, I think, you know, he was a philosopher, he was an author, he was a journalist, he was active, right. He was in the cover of Vogue. I mean, he had a full life. Like he really, I think embodied this idea of, of let's say, you know, the hatred of death to an extent to live fully again with yourself in the driver's seat of that process is sort of what I think Camu wanted for us. Right. And again, why coffee? Well, coffee puts you in the driver's seat. Coffee is just pretty much like, you know, it's like this basically success water, right. It gives you what you need to go out and maybe face a chaotic universe and say, no, I'm not going to succumb to this meaninglessness. I'm instead going to be scornful of that. I'm going to, you know, kind of despise that. And in the face of that, I'm going to live. And in that living, my life will take on meaning, right. I'm responsible for this. So again, some opening points I really like to to mention here, right. And then we get into this idea. Right in this paragraph. Of the stone rushing down. And if it has to watch it, go down. Right. That return to the bottom of the mountain is what interest Camu. Right. Why? Because as I said earlier, a face that told us so close to stone is already stone itself. Right. You become again, we maybe can shape our habits and our habits will shape us. So we get a little bit of that. I think type of encouragement with this as well. Right. When he leaves the height and he gradually sinks towards the layer of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. Right. So by going back down. And by, you know, again, if the descent can happen, if the accent can happen in happiness, so can the descent. So imagine this where he's potentially smiling as he supposedly, as his life has been robbed of its meaning. He didn't make it to the top. But if he walks down smiling, he wins. That's being unaffected, right. By the chaotic universe. So maybe we open ourselves up to the chaotic universe and what we might need and this is a virtue that we'll discuss in a later conversation. So hopefully is this sort of just about confidence almost. And again, this is over simplification, but I think it's an interesting question. Is that harmony between the life one leads and, you know, and oneself or the image of the self is a sort of is a bridge to that. Just being able to say I'm unaffected and is that a kind of confidence, right. Does have how much or to what extent does happiness require confidence. To what extent is leading a meaningful life in the face of a potentially chaotic meaningless universe requires us to just be courageous. Right. To say no to it, you know, to use this is right to say no to the gods. I will not feel punished by the rock rolling back down. I will feel in my own. I will feel my own accord right of my own way of thinking I should feel. Right. And if the myth is tragic, it's only because he's conscious or you know, because he's aware. And we maybe get a moment of awareness, right. We talked about purpose like you might or hopefully our last conversation about Alan debut, when he's talking about working in a rupture, working in, you know, a piece of. Or a, you know, a small, at least a small section of empty time during the day to really confront ourselves. That's sort of maybe the consciousness he's talking about here. Right. The workmen of today works every day in his life at the same tasks. This is to Carmelo's point, right. And his face, fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious. Okay. And this is where he gets some interesting contradictions, right. Cicophists, the posterity of the gods, powerless and rebellious. Knows the whole extent of his wretched condition. It's aware of it. It is what he thinks of during his descent, the lucidity of, I'm sorry, the lucidity that was so constitute, that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by score. So why is this, in my opinion, kind of contradictory, right. He's saying torture and victory, not two things we usually think are synonymous. Right. Powerless and rebellious. Well, you have to have some kind of power to be rebellious. Right. So I think this is so interesting. Right. It's almost like he's talking about these, these dichotomies that might lay out the foundation. Of being a human being, right. Again, in the chaotic universe. Because in the face of, you know, a universe that, especially in perhaps the idea that, you know, the universe is, or the high power is all powerful, right. Think about how that would even work with this philosophy for a moment, right. This sort of Cicophists, let's say absurdist philosophy. Any thoughts on this, because I think that these couple paragraphs are very interesting. How can something at the same time constitute torture and victory. Right. If this may be Kamu is kind of walking us through, once again, this grappling match. Right. And you can surmount or move beyond or conquer the fate through scorn. And when he's saying in the next line, right, the descent is that sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place and joy. Maybe that realization is simple, but powerful. Right. The rock, as he says in his paragraph, can win. When the images of Earth cling too tight to memory, and he's in the underworld, right. When the call of happiness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy arises in man's heart. This is the rock's victory. This is the rock itself, that kind of melancholy, right. But instead of clinging too tightly to Earth, which is to say clinging too tight to what he cannot achieve, right. Clinging too tightly to what is not to cling instead to the rock itself. Again, the obstacle is the way to realize that the rock is making him somebody. Again, the idea of stone becoming or this him turning into stone, right. To see that his descent does not have to mean his torture instead. It can mean his joy. These are the moments, the kind of turns of consciousness, let's say, that make the contradictions make sense because they are in fact a turn. They are two sides of the same event, right. They're talking about two types of consciousness, the earthly consciousness that makes him yearn, makes him want for what is not versus the pushing the task consciousness to fully address the moment. And this is very much, you know, again, a stoic idea, but to see that this moment is enough for us. This moment is not meaningless, but instead it can fill us up. That's the consciousness we need, maybe to embody this philosophy in a way that is effective for us. Remarkers are really as well confront this idea famously in his meditations to himself, trying to ground himself in the moment was like this is enough for me. And he even connects it to duty among other things, right. This moment is enough for me to fulfill some kind of obligation to myself and to the world that can imbue my life, give my life that sense of fullness or meaning. So it's just as if he wants to be happy, he cannot cling too tightly to images of earth, that will bring him melancholy. Because then the rock is an obstruction, his task is an obstruction instead of what it truly is, which is his life, right, for eternity. Oh, it's so good. So nice. So what I'm saying is making, okay, so sometimes too, like I always try to give myself, as you see, I have some highlighted points, right. So there's some points I want to touch on, but honestly, too, for me, I've taught this a lot, but I always see it with fresh eyes, because for me. What I'm going, what I'm thinking about, presently, always, especially this essay really connects to it, right. So I always lecture it a little bit differently. So sometimes I'm, I'm then I'm making sense, ultimately, and I appreciate that. And Nio, if you wouldn't mind, I think it'd be interesting. What is the main idea for you, right. So you're saying, if I think the main idea is the most interesting. So how would you characterize that? And that might be helpful for me to kind of finish out the lecture in a way that that could be as useful as possible for you. How would you define the main idea? And I'll maybe give you a moment to articulate that, because that's, you know, that's maybe an interesting question. So that requires some thought. But let me move on a little bit to the next page, right. And again, we're grappling with this idea of, and this is also something I think we get from John through a little bit, another philosophy we might have time to talk about. He pretty much says, and when other things, the first step to realizing your, or to becoming happy is realizing you're not happy. Right. The first step to being confident is realizing that you're afraid. And those are opposites. Right. So if, for example, Kami was saying, well, we have to deal with the chaotic universe, he's sort of also saying, you don't just get happiness. And at the very least we can say, you don't just get happiness frequently from an outside source. So we shouldn't rely on it. Right. Instead, he said, you need to realize that this is chaotic. That's the consciousness. Right. So he says, happiness and the absurd, which is to say, again, is chaotic nature of universe and are yearning for meaning in a meaningless universe. Right. Our two sons of the same earth, they are inseparable. It would be a mistake to say that happiness necessarily springs from the absurd discovery. Right. It happens as well that the feeling of the absurd springs from happiness. I conclude that all as well. Right. So he's talking about different myth here. Right. But I think the key word there is I. Right. It makes up a human matter, which must be settled among men. So that's saying we for Kamu can and should work to make the meaninglessness of the universe. Something that is indifferent to us in that we can then conclude our state of being. We can then conclude what is we are maybe let's say to use a term from the existentialist Jean Paul Sartre, who was a contemporary and a one point friend of Kamu, right. We might be able to say that we're the final legislator in the face of a chaotic universe. Right. I can conclude that all as well or not, but it's on me. If I'm not committing philosophical suicide. Right. His fate belongs to him. Key point from physicists, right. There is no sum without shadow and it is essential to know the night the absurd man says yes and his efforts will henceforth be unceasing so efforts for what so in the shadowy darkness of night we know and that's the universe, right. It's just it's unclear. It's you know, you're not seeing things because there's nothing there to be seen. Right. And when he talks about the blind man, that's a really great analogy to work with this idea of seeing. Right. He says, you know, like the blind man who knows, like the blind man who yearns to see, but who knows the night has no end, right. Like a blind man eager to see who knows the night has no end. He is still on the go. The rock is still rolling, which is to say he's yearning for sight. His yearning for sight could drive him into a state of unhappiness. Right. He doesn't have to be cited physically to have a positive vision of life. Anyway, Cicifist doesn't need to have like the gods in a punishing by saying again, and maybe I want to stick with that sense, but it will not make sense. Right. The gods are in punishing punishing him with a task that he can't quote unquote complete. He has to be open to incompletion. He has to be open to just work as he says unceasingly. Why haven't impossible goal that'll keep us going and the keeping the keeping going is where the meeting is. Right. So a brief anecdote that I think this is one of the reasons why this essay I think speaks to me and resonates with me and why I, you know, I've told her for so many years. So I think for me when I read that blind man eager to see my mom's dad was blind. Right. He went blind when he was 50 out of seemingly out of nowhere. Right. He was a very active guy before that worked at construction, very athletic, right. Very active within six months of the diagnosis. He went from totally cited to completely blind. So he never saw me, right. We were incredibly close. And every day my grandmother and with him in university, right. You would basically have a set of tasks that he would complete every day clockwork. Right. One of which was to go outside. And this is I'm not sure where we're all from. This is right in Pelin Bay in the Bronx. Right. So I would spend days on end there. And he would always go outside and sweep the stairs. Right. So he didn't know if they were dirty in the first place. Right. Nor did he really know with certainty that he cleaned them. Right. But he would every day. And this is, you know, I think something I always observed. Right. He would smile when he swept the stairs. He enjoyed this, just the process of sweeping. And for him, it was something useful and meaningful, right. Although seemingly, right. You know, given his plate, right. And again, the randomness of that too always struck me. There was no real diagnosis for it. It was really unclear as to why it happened. He could have spent his whole life in misery, trying to search for a why he could have blamed God. He could have been, you know, blaming himself and others. But instead he just adopted. I think what Camus would suggest would be a pacifist mentality. Right. He could curse the night. He was always in night. Right. Again, totally blind. Or he could try to see something different. He could try to cultivate a healthy vision of his daily tasks and let them fill him with a sense of meaning instead of damning them. Right. And one sort of sense in a particular, and this is just a memory, right. One day we came in and right after sweeping the stairs and it rained. And he smiled and said, well, at least we swept the stairs. Right. And playing. It's like double meaningless. But in the face of that, I can just smile. I can learn to laugh. I can learn to see that it was a good thing to get up and get moving with my grandson and talk with him outside. Right. And it's again back to Carmelo's point about perspective a little bit for sure. It's a meaningful aspect of that. And also the idea of just pacifist and his task. We all need a task in life back to the general theme of this chapter. Right. A purpose is really necessary for us, I think, to lead a meaningful life. And that doesn't mean you have to every day return to your purpose, you know, for, you know, hours on end. It just means we need to give ourselves a sense of direction. And Camero was suggesting that, I think, among other things, we take as much control of that as individuals as possible. Right. So the idea, again, as we have here, fate being a human matter, the notion for him that there's some destiny that exists outside of our own ability to conceive of it is a problem. I make it really disagree with that, right. A lot of beautiful philosophies and we can even talk about theologies, perhaps believe in a sense of destiny, even the stoics, right. A number of them really cling very strongly to this notion of destiny. Right. So a little different perspective from Camero here. But again, maybe this is useful or and or helpful for some of us. And I think either way, it's very interesting, I think. And as we had earlier in our discussion, right. The last paragraph, one always finds one's burden again. The struggle itself towards the heights, which is again, a point we've been saying a lot throughout this conversation is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine this is this happy. So that's struggle towards the height. That's just keeping the ball rolling pun intended. Right. And seeing again that we're pushing it, we're becoming someone as a result. And it can always be meaningful if we for Camero adopt the perspective that our fate is our own. And that's fate capital F and fate lowercase again day to day life fate. The fate of this class, you don't have to be bored right now. Right. You can engage with what I'm saying, you can engage with the reading with an inquisitive questioning type of approach. Again, thinking maybe of our main question, how a philosophy served me. And or in a lot of sense, you could be spacing out and having a really interesting daydream situation. I'm as useful. I mean, please don't do that now, but ultimately, it'll happen during class and it'll happen during life. So even our daydreams, I think, can be purposeful and benevolent and meaningful. Again, the idea to have imagined imagining this if it's happy, right. Our imaginations are, you know, I think our contributing factors to whether or not we can lead meaningful lives as well. We have to maybe let's say even quote unquote, imagine the meaning when it's not there for us. And that could be a good idea too. All right. We've been talking for a while, or any closing thoughts or questions before we take a short break. All right. So let's take a quick 10 minutes. All right. I'll stop recording here. And we'll return and probably get into some socrates. Thank you for participating so far. It's a good good conversation. See you in 10 minutes. Let's say come back at 1045. Thank you.