Even the most blessed life has its share of illness, disappointment and loss. Philosophical traditions such as Buddhism and Stoicism promise an escape from this by cultivating a disinterested detachment. But for me this comes at too high a cost. Love — for other people, for projects, for the world — necessarily entails pain at its loss or failure.
ReadOur omni-connected age endlessly feeds us shallow pleasures that demand little time and effort, when most of what is valuable in life requires a fair bit of both. They are the digital equivalent of chunks of cheap milk chocolate: tasty and harmless enough by themselves but ruinous when eaten endlessly.
ReadConviction is overrated and the value of “knowing your own mind” misunderstood. Those who harbour more doubts know their own minds well enough. But knowing the world well too, the result is rarely clear, firm opinions.
ReadI don’t think there can or should be a going back to the days when spiritual shepherds spoke and human flocks followed. But something needs to do the work today that those five commandments did for centuries. That something needs to transcend our own narrow self-interests and those of our kith and kin. The only credible candidate for that is our common humanity.
ReadI have a problem with unconditional love. I don’t mean that I feel its lack or don’t want to give it. Rather, I’m not sure why people seem so keen to value it…
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