I have not written for a long time, still trying to figure out what the “Curious Voyager” is doing. My wife and I just celebrated a major wedding anniversary and I am still trying to work out what it is I want to be when I grow up – hence the name “Curious Voyager”.
“Well, I've been around this land, just a-doin' the best I can, Tryin' to find what I was meant to do.” (Tom Paxton, 1964 – Album “Ramblin’ Boy”)
Recently, having just finished auditing a class on “Critical
Thinking”, and
while still going over my notes, I found a blog, the Daily
Stoic, and I am now quite fascinated with Stoicism. From the Daily
Stoic I started reading “Ego Is the Enemy” by Ryan
Holiday which led me to the audio rendition and my wife even lets me play it in
the car.
I have always had an interest in Philosophy, and when I left
the University of Kentucky in 1975 and later took a job with a local company it
was made clear to me “people do not want to talk about philosophy Walter”,
so it had to be kept a secret (not a well-kept one) until recently. Now it’s
out in the open.
I have never understood why no one wants to talk about
Philosophy when the definition returns the meaning “Love of Wisdom”.
Learning to reason, think, attempt to understand. On the other hand, after
listening to all our politicians I can understand the reluctance to gain wisdom. I suspect some of the Stoics would not be appreciated by many in government today.
Sadly, I was never taught (or remembered) about Philosophy during my early schooling. Like most we were taught what to
think, not how to think.
Bring it on Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, let’s get at
it. My hair is silver, and I do have a long green robe (It is my Obi Wan Kenobi robe - I think of Obi Wan as a philosopher - or was it Yoda?).
The above is a long way around to why I got so excited
today. Over the weekend, while studying for my class “Stoicism 101” I
found a video by Ryan Holiday who introduced me to another individual whose philosophy
is as interesting as well, the individual is Casey Neistat.
The video I discovered via my class “Stoicism 101” was Casey Neistat's 10 Stoic Practices (For Productivity). Its runtime is twenty minutes and both interesting and insightful.
As interesting is Casey Neistat’s YouTube videos.
Today I landed into those Casey Neistat videos. The first one, Do What You Can’t, was fun and quite interesting. So, I followed that with Snowboarding with the Nypd, now the day is almost lost. There are more, and more, this was just the beginning. Casey turns out to be both fun and someone you could learn from as well as enjoy.
Check out the Daily Stoic and while you are on the internet catch one of Casey Neistat's videos. Who knows, it just might lighten up your day and give you something different to talk about.
*Note: in reviewing the above I changed Stoicism 1001 to what it should have been, Stoicism 101 - and that was not an autocorrect error - writer error. :)
