The Road Goes Ever On and On

Oh, wow. The end of this year is in... half an hour. Central time. I'd be lying if I said I was excited, though. Very little marks this day as important to me aside from the symbolic mark of the chance to reinvent oneself and resolve previous faults, mistakes, bad habits, et cetera.

I have a few resolutions, of course... Exercise more, read more, sit around like a fatass less... You know. The normal stuff. However, I also want to move deeper into the roots of my own personal philosophy. I've been reading a lot of philosophy lately, and I've come to realize that it's kind of a silly thing. Both philosophies and resolutions, actually. In fact, they're so silly I'd almost say they were worthless.

Almost.

Studying philosophy is much more similar to making a new year's resolution than one might expect. You do both in order to fully realize a certain aspect of your own potential. You also must be meticulous and organized in doing so. You also need to be fully committed. If you slack off in any aspect of either one, things get messy and they just don't realize the right conclusion.

This may seem a bit silly, but think of last year's resolutions you made. Don't remember 'em? Yeah, me either. But try to think what they might have been. Do you think you improved over this year? I hope the answer is yes.

If you thought of it deeply enough, you have begun to use the past to evaluate the present. You retraced your steps. It's always important to know where we've been-- that's why we study history, after all. Philosophy has more common threads in New Year's resolutions when we look at where we're going, though, so let's take a brief glimpse at what the next decade might bring.

I made a new year's resolution to read more... The more I read, the more I look at the human lifespan not quite as a span of time, but more a series of events-- Less of a timeline and more of a sequence of events, decisions, and actions.  Allow me to elaborate...

As you read in my previous post (I hope you have, anyway), Gautama Buddha makes a metaphor out of the Ganges river. It is constantly flowing-- As a certain Greek philosopher (and Native American Disney star) once said (sang): You can't step in the same river twice. You are a completely different person than you were a split second ago-- So how can you make a resolution for the entire year when you change so subtly (and yet so powerfully) in such a small amount of time?

Heraclitus, everyone!... Oh, wait.

My point is this: Whether you are studying philosophy or resolving to improve yourself in the new Decade, don't decide to do it as something that will radically change you. Rather, I urge you to view it as a product of you radically changing. I want my resolutions to happen of their own accord because I followed the correct path to make them happen. I do not want to choose my path in order to achieve a resolution I made back last year.

I sincerely hope your Resolutions come to be, and I hope your Philosophy deepens your understanding of the world around you. Thanks for reading.

Peace and Love in the New Year.