ENTRY EIGHT

October 9, 2018

I wrote this for my English class.

" All human activities aim at some good. Every art and human inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, it is thought to at some good; and for this reason the good has been rightly declared as that at which all things aim." (Nicomachean Ethics 2:2)

I believe in the good life.

          Have you ever been asked, what if you could choose to be born in a different era, what would you pick? Or have you ever wished you were born in a different decade? I sometimes do.

          To be born in a completely different world is a wild concept that I so like to marvel at. Why? Well, the choices are endless from the agricultural revolution to the modern globalized world of today. Try it, imagine being alive in the time of Martial Law. It wasn’t best of times. But what would have it been like? Aren’t you curious? Or the time before all technology was invented and the internet was non-existent, it was a simpler time. What would have it been like?

          For me, I chose the time of the Greeks. Why? Why would one choose an era which is long dead and unheard of except in books? Let me explain. First, the time of the Greeks was a time of inquiry. Everybody asked questions. What is a human being? Why are we alive? What is life? How should one do with his life? What is good in this life? Greeks asked a lot of questions that shaped the way they value life. And they value it very highly. I value life as they value it. I value the good life. I value in living well and doing well.

          If you make me chose between two lives. One is that I could live for about 85 years but I would live in pain, sadness and in regret, a life where I would be drowning in self-pity and the victim game. Oh! I wish I didn’t do this or that. Oh! I was born in a less able family. I didn’t have much growing up. All people are dumb. People hate me and I hate them. Or I could live for about 20 years and I would live it in love, goodness and harmony. I would spend my days choosing to make positive impact and changes that flourishes me and others. I would chose to live 20 years short but worthwhile. I picked as the Greeks did. I value a good quality of life rather than the sanctity of life, short but worthwhile.

Second, since they believe in the good life, attaining the good life is finding your happiness and purpose not in material pleasure and anything superficial but in truth. Things that is intangible. As I quote from the Little Prince “What is essential is invisible to the naked eye.”

Lastly, the good life comes from living a life of virtue, of kindness. Each one of us has the capacity to be kind only if one chooses to practice it.

In conclusion, I chose the era of the Greeks because they believe in what is important. Our society has become too toxic. I feel suffocated and trapped because I feel like every move I make is being carefully watched, monitored so when finally do make a mistake they pounce on like a lion. So maybe if we think like the Greeks, just maybe, things might change.

xoxo