4 Useless Pieces of Advice No One Wants to Hear
Oh, the river of useless platitudes that have flown out of the mouths of well-intentioned people, to which I must occasionally include myself.
Oh, the river of useless platitudes that have flown out of the mouths of well-intentioned people, to which I must occasionally include myself.
I have known a great many people that seem to have everything together in their lives. People that seem to have it all figured out.
The Stoic philosophers of Greece and Rome proposed a great many practices that were meant to be folded into one’s life to help them reach the ideal states of equanimity, fortitude and wisdom that was the goal of the Stoic Sage.
From the dawn of philosophy, the division of the mind and the body has formed one of the classic dualisms. Many philosophers have focused their attention on the importance and superiority of the mind while ignoring the impact the body has on our general being.
You probably heard this at some point: chocolate isn’t good for you. People would say that chocolate causes tooth decay, obesity, and even diabetes.
I have yet to meet a heart that has not had its share of breaking. It is an inevitable consequence of something so powerful and fulfilling and overwhelming as love that it should also contain within it the capacity to be as debilitating, mournful, and suffering as a broken heart can be.
I see you out there. Picking up the pieces of your life with that red-faced look of shame and that faint shine of tears that is swelling in your eyes.
I know that some people will never care about being the cool parent. I know that some parents see their role as a trainer, guide and disciplinarian, and believe that the best way to raise desirable adults is to not be too indulgent to their children’s whims.
To my son, I think often of the legacy I leave for you. I wonder how memory will color me in your eyes.
For the longest time, I thought I was the lone fuck-up in a world of over-achieving do-gooders. I thought everyone’s life was an unbroken string of success and that the charted trajectory of their experience was the steady, upward climb of progressively improved living.