My Favorite Things

The Sound of Music has so many fabulous songs in it that the musical has to be one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s greatest productions.

The song “My Favorite Things” exudes positivity. A training exercise for the children on how to get over the speed bumps of life. It also works for adults.

I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad.

At its base, “My Favorite Things” represents an Epicurean approach to living day to day.

When the dog bites, or the bee stings, or when I’m feeling sad, all I have to do is remember my favorite things and at least some of the pain goes away.

This is the Epicurean approach: happiness via pleasure is already ours, we just need to reduce or eliminate the pain to realize it.

If you look at the things that Maria says are her favorite things, they aren’t even things she owns — they are things that simply bring her pleasure.

Rain drops. Kitten whiskers. Girls in white dresses. Snowflakes. Cream-colored ponies. Silver-white winters that melt into spring.

Life is full of pleasurable things we don’t even own. They just exist. It’s pain that prevents us from seeing them. Reduce or eliminate pain, and the pleasure is ours.

How do we reduce or eliminate pain? By remembering all the good things we have that aren’t even ours. But we have to force our minds past the pain to remember them. That is the work we must do to achieve the good life. A life of pleasure that brings us happiness.

Nothing happens without work. There are no magic wands. In the midst of pain and sadness, remember the good things, the things that bring you pleasure — and happiness will be yours.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

 

 

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

 

 

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It’s a Wonderful Life

No, I’m not talking today about the 1946 film directed by Frank Capra. I’m talking about life. About why life is worth living. Which, by the way, is the theme of the movie. We are going to spend a little bit of time today chatting about philosophy. I know, I know. Philosophy. Boring. Bear with me and see how eminently practical philosophy is.

We all have one, you know. A philosophy, that is. We may not be able to articulate its tenets, but how we live our lives tells others what those tenets are. Even if they can’t enumerate specifics either, they know exactly what drives us and what we value.

What we value and what motivates us is in fact our personal philosophy. And if we can’t utter it with our lips, we certainly do so by our actions.

I’ve been interested in philosophy for nearly 50 years, ever since high school, and the one philosopher I continually come back to is the ancient Roman Stoic, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Younger.

Seneca was a fascinating individual in his own right. A man often at odds with his own school of thought. A man who was eminently guilty of not following his own advice.

However, where Seneca, in my opinion, redeemed himself was in his old age. There, in his last years, stripped of power, position, and wealth, Seneca embraced his philosophy and wrote the best advice one person could ever hope to give to another. His Letters to Lucilius are short and pithy and cover a wide range of topics. They are very readable and enjoyable today — almost 2000 years after they were written.

What in particular do I like about Seneca? I’d have to say it is his very practical and realistic approach to life. His advice is reasonable and not freighted with pietistic or moralistic sentiment. It is pre-Christian and fits well with those of us living in a post-Christian age. Ironically enough, early Christian morality and ethics were based on Stoic principles.

As an example, let’s take a look at Seneca’s opinion about wealth. According to our philosopher, there is nothing wrong with having money. Even lots of money. The problem comes, according to Seneca, when we try to cling to our money. The solution, he offers, is to live as if we didn’t have any money. In other words, to live a simple life. By so doing our lives won’t be cluttered with the problems one encounters when one has lots of money.

Seneca himself learned this lesson the hard way. At the highpoint of his career he was one of two tutors to the very young Nero. He had tremendous power and was one of the wealthiest men history has ever known. Bill Gates’ wealth would have been casual spending money to Seneca. When Nero became of age and Seneca realized what the Emperor was truly like, our philosopher gave his money to the young man and retired from public life. Seneca went from being in control of the vast Roman Empire to being a humble patrician farmer.

From Seneca, I learned to value life for its own sake. Not for what I have, because tomorrow everything I have might be taken away from me — as it was for Seneca. The small things and the intangible things give value to life. Things like friendship and contentment. And those are found within a person, not without.

No one has friends who is not first a friend to himself or herself. I cannot love another, unless I first love me. I must, first and foremost, love myself and be friends with myself. Only then, am I capable of truly loving and befriending others.

Contentment does not come from without. It comes from within. If I am satisfied with who I am, then I will be satisfied with what I have. And I will be content.

The human being is a reasoning animal, Seneca wrote. And when reason has been brought to perfection in the soul, we fulfill the good for which nature designed us. We live then according to our nature, as reasonable beings. If we are out of control, if we lack contentment, is we lack love for ourselves, then we are imperfect beings and do not live reasonable lives. We are not living, Seneca would say, according to nature.

The goal of philosophy is to bring us to a state of mind where we live according to that for which we were designed. That is, lives marked by reasonable thoughts and behaviors.

This is a wonderful life if we live according to our nature, according to reason. If we are balanced and content, everything within us and around us will be wonderful.

That is philosophy. And why I find it such a wonderful, non-judgmental guide to life. The good life. The wonderful life.

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Book Review: A Bump In The Night

Fantasy is a genre I no longer find very interesting. To be honest, I don’t like magic and I’m very much tired of trolls, elves, dwarves, and the whole passel of Tolkienesque rip-offs. Having written that, I recently ran across two works of fantasy I very much enjoyed. They are by Crispian Thurlborn: The Chalice and A Bump in the Night.

Today, I’m going to review A Bump in the Night. It is a ghost story, but unlike any I’ve read. I bought the book on Amazon, where the Kindle version may be purchased for $2.99. This review is unsolicited. As I explained in last week’s post “Reading”, I’m intending to post at least one review a month. My purpose is to share books I’ve read that I think need a wider audience or that I consider to be memorable reads.

A Bump In The Night

Ghosts. Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? I know I do. With Mr Snaggle and Mr Snuffle, we have two ghosts on a mission to save their friend, Mr Bump from fading to oblivion. I shan’t say more about the storyline, as I don’t wish to give too much away. Suffice it to say, Crispian Thurlborn has given us a delightfully satisfying and whimsical tale where Mr Bump ends up getting help from a most unlikely source. And one which ends up helping us as well.

All of the characters are well-drawn and even though Mr Snaggle and Mr Snuffle are very often mischievous imps, they are a pair one is hard pressed not to love. Mr Bump is in many ways an example of modern, urban human beings. We, who in this age of luxury and plenty, find ourselves to have lost our sense of meaning and purpose. Mr Bump’s journey is our journey. A quest to find ourselves.

Mr Thurlborn’s writing style is superbly magical. The text flows effortlessly and carries you along, as a river a boat. Here we find an eloquence not often seen today.

This book’s entertainment value is top drawer. The tale is delightful and wonderful. Superbly rich. It is frozen custard in book form. Mr Thurlborn gives us a story with humor, sadness, philosophy, and a satisfying ending. I don’t often re-read books. This one, however, is a candidate for re-reading. Very highly recommended!!

Crispian Thurlborn is a phenomenal writer. I hope he gives us more treasure. Much, much more.

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