Solomon had an answer in Ecclesiastes: “Everything is vanity.” In a weird way, that gives me comfort because it tells me just to be at peace with not being at peace.
- Break into the 90s for my golf game;
- Learn to play guitar and write a strummy folk song;
- Get a general grasp on world history, starting with European and American history and then branching out to Asian, African, Latin American, you name it. Also trace the general progression of philosophy over the ages … with the purpose of putting today’s politics in context and discerning the broad patterns of human affairs;
- Run 3 miles at a 10 minute pace or better without having to breathe hard, then set more grandiose goals;
- Be an active dad who helps the kids with homework every night;
- Start taking at least one great vacation to somewhere I’ve never been at least once a year;
- Master “book play” for Texas Hold’Em and Seven Card Stud, after which I can get fancy looking for peoples’ tells.
Sounds shallow and silly, but my limited reading of history tells me it’s not an uncommon issue. European nobles from medieval times through the enlightenment were driven by the need to alleviate boredom.
In the end, even if I never answer the worthiness question, at least I can hope to have a pretty good run of things.
At peace with not being at peace.
3 comments:
someone much, much better than I at golf once told me this:
driving ranges cost money and provide almost no return on investment. chipping and putting greens are free at almost every golf course, you can walk right on up and start using them - and all but 18 (maybe 27 or so on the outside) of your strokes will be bettered by spending time there rather than at the driving range. cheaper too - more money for skins games ;)
true, but it sucks to be the guy who dribbles off the tee.
In the end, though, golf is just an excuse to drink with your buddies in the morning for 3 hours or more ...
Comments are a gift I think. Just keep an eye on your profile views, and that means people are at least reading your posts, and finding out more about you.
Your list seems to be reasonable, but ambitious. Staying on track with three of them seems doable.
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