Quality Life
In-the-works thoughts about my "Philosophy of Life".
History
Last summer, I read the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig. This happened to coincide with my own thought experiment brought on by the musings of mid-life. Out of these thoughts and readings came a commmitment to pull together a philosophy of life based on the belief that we are created to live a "quality life", or "life to the full" as Jesus describes it in the Gospel of John. This philosophy is first and foremost a map for myself, a way of organizing information, beliefs and hunches into a conceptual framework that's easy to work with and easy to explain to others. I've nicknamed it "a pocket knife philosophy" because my hope is that it will be simple enough to fit into your pocket, yet full of enough tools and gadgets to be useful no matter where you find yourself.
Last summer, I read the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig. This happened to coincide with my own thought experiment brought on by the musings of mid-life. Out of these thoughts and readings came a commmitment to pull together a philosophy of life based on the belief that we are created to live a "quality life", or "life to the full" as Jesus describes it in the Gospel of John. This philosophy is first and foremost a map for myself, a way of organizing information, beliefs and hunches into a conceptual framework that's easy to work with and easy to explain to others. I've nicknamed it "a pocket knife philosophy" because my hope is that it will be simple enough to fit into your pocket, yet full of enough tools and gadgets to be useful no matter where you find yourself.
Life to the Full
There are many ways of describing a full life, just as there are many ways of bringing joy and experiencing delight. Currently I'm using these phrases as a way of fleshing out what I'm after.
- A full life is one where the fruit of the Spirit are present. My blog is exploring this now.
- A full life is one where the good, the true and the beautiful exist in harmony. These categories, from Plato, are picked up by Susan Sumner in her book "Leadership above the Line" where she talks about the good, the true and the beautiful as three diferent styles of leadership. I like her way of processing this, and so I'm drawing on her work to say the following: Good is a way of talking about relational aspects of life, true describes the analytical life and beauty our aesthetic life. When all three facets are polished, we glow. A related statement to the one above is: Life to the full is a life that is characterized by glory.
- A full life is lived in creative community with God, with self, with neighbor and with creation. The road to this community is reconciliation, the process of moving from brokenness to wholeness, from enmity to friendship, from disjointedness to integrity.
There are many ways of describing a full life, just as there are many ways of bringing joy and experiencing delight. Currently I'm using these phrases as a way of fleshing out what I'm after.
- A full life is one where the fruit of the Spirit are present. My blog is exploring this now.
- A full life is one where the good, the true and the beautiful exist in harmony. These categories, from Plato, are picked up by Susan Sumner in her book "Leadership above the Line" where she talks about the good, the true and the beautiful as three diferent styles of leadership. I like her way of processing this, and so I'm drawing on her work to say the following: Good is a way of talking about relational aspects of life, true describes the analytical life and beauty our aesthetic life. When all three facets are polished, we glow. A related statement to the one above is: Life to the full is a life that is characterized by glory.
- A full life is lived in creative community with God, with self, with neighbor and with creation. The road to this community is reconciliation, the process of moving from brokenness to wholeness, from enmity to friendship, from disjointedness to integrity.
