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Yes, getting your wish would have been so nice. But isn’t that exactly why pleasure trips us up? Instead, see if these things might be even nicer - a great soul, freedom, honesty, kindness, saintliness. For there is nothing so pleasing as wisdom itself, when you consider how sure-footed and effortless the works of understanding and knowledge are.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.9
Growing up in a place where seeking pleasure and satisfying lust were parts of the cultural undercurrent really informed my relationship to the virtue/vice spectrum. New Orleans is a place where if you needed an itch scratched, you could get it scratched at any time of day or night. Power, pride, or dopamine… it didn’t matter. You could get any fleeting desire met whenever you wanted.
However, none of those things last, nor are they within our control.
Power comes and goes, and any power that you have to rent isn’t real. Pride is ego telling you how awesome you are, and the feelings that come with pride will fade and you’ll just need more. Dopamine, by its nature, passes through our minds and bodies leaving us with naught but the memories of the sex or drugs we just enjoyed… and like power and pride, we just want more and more.
So, what lasts longer? What sustains us more? What is under our control?
“... a great soul, freedom, honesty, kindness, saintliness.”
(See y’all tomorrow)
However, none of those things last, nor are they within our control.
Power comes and goes, and any power that you have to rent isn’t real. Pride is ego telling you how awesome you are, and the feelings that come with pride will fade and you’ll just need more. Dopamine, by its nature, passes through our minds and bodies leaving us with naught but the memories of the sex or drugs we just enjoyed… and like power and pride, we just want more and more.
So, what lasts longer? What sustains us more? What is under our control?
“... a great soul, freedom, honesty, kindness, saintliness.”
(See y’all tomorrow)
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