Starting the New Year Off Right
Markets will open for this one lonely first official day of business, a Friday, of the first week of 2015. Not quite business as usual, however. That will most likely await the return of the full phalanx of traders on Monday, as many have taken the long weekend this year.
But here's a thought to start 2015: How about we all towards towards our historical religious and cultural roots this year to help us negotiate our way through the inevitable challenges that life presents us from time to time? I think you'll find this a worthy candidate for a New Year's resolution, one that might lead to at least a modicum of happiness and contentment in your life this year.
To see why, by way of example, I note this headline in a local rag: “Tips To Survive Holiday Eating.” Rather twisted (even if true for some) way to view celebrating Christmas and New Year's, don’t you think? Oh, right, the observance of these glorious religious observances may not be the motivation, nor the nature, of the celebrating. (And New Year's is a religious observance, by the way, at least in the Catholic Church.) But if that’s so, then one deserves the “blow back” from self-indulgence based on the mere seeking of sensual pleasure. Justice is duly served.
But wouldn't you rather rather celebrate than survive? If one celebrates in the right spirit and follows the prompts of the virtue of temperance, one needn’t be in survival mode at all.
"Temperance" you ask? Doesn't it mean abstention for alcoholic drink? Well, that's one part of its definition. But that's more of an historical aberration, the result of a puritanical strain of Protestantism that still laces its way through American society (albeit mostly buried deeply in the collective unconscious these days, rather than serving as a conscious moral imperative for most of us). In fact, temperance refers generally to moderation or self-restraint, and is one of the four "cardinal" virtues, the others being prudence, justice and fortitude.
We won't get into the historical, philosophical or theological background of how these four became designated "cardinal" virtues, except to say they were part of an effort, going back to ancient times, to organize man's efforts to live an ordered life in the midst of a disordered world. Perfected by Christian writers, following the Greek philosophical and intellectual tradition, they stand atop a systematic body of thought about how we might live the good life, rather than allow ourselves to be sucked into a kind of vortex of sensual pleasure, which, as you should know, leads only to unhappiness in the end.
You do know this, don't you? If not, you're missing the benefits of centuries of thoughtful development of the truths inherent in the wisdom found in our religious and cultural roots. Such truths traditionally provided moral and practical guidelines that directed one's daily actions towards the attainment of true happiness. If you don't understand this, I suspect it's either because you've been poorly educated; or perhaps you once did know this but have rejected it to justify your pursuit of more mere pleasure. Maybe it's some combination of the two. Just know that, unless you rectify your ignorance and/or immoral behavior, you place yourself at a great disadvantage to attaining any degree of happiness in this New Year of 2015. Think about it.
But here's a thought to start 2015: How about we all towards towards our historical religious and cultural roots this year to help us negotiate our way through the inevitable challenges that life presents us from time to time? I think you'll find this a worthy candidate for a New Year's resolution, one that might lead to at least a modicum of happiness and contentment in your life this year.
To see why, by way of example, I note this headline in a local rag: “Tips To Survive Holiday Eating.” Rather twisted (even if true for some) way to view celebrating Christmas and New Year's, don’t you think? Oh, right, the observance of these glorious religious observances may not be the motivation, nor the nature, of the celebrating. (And New Year's is a religious observance, by the way, at least in the Catholic Church.) But if that’s so, then one deserves the “blow back” from self-indulgence based on the mere seeking of sensual pleasure. Justice is duly served.
But wouldn't you rather rather celebrate than survive? If one celebrates in the right spirit and follows the prompts of the virtue of temperance, one needn’t be in survival mode at all.
"Temperance" you ask? Doesn't it mean abstention for alcoholic drink? Well, that's one part of its definition. But that's more of an historical aberration, the result of a puritanical strain of Protestantism that still laces its way through American society (albeit mostly buried deeply in the collective unconscious these days, rather than serving as a conscious moral imperative for most of us). In fact, temperance refers generally to moderation or self-restraint, and is one of the four "cardinal" virtues, the others being prudence, justice and fortitude.
We won't get into the historical, philosophical or theological background of how these four became designated "cardinal" virtues, except to say they were part of an effort, going back to ancient times, to organize man's efforts to live an ordered life in the midst of a disordered world. Perfected by Christian writers, following the Greek philosophical and intellectual tradition, they stand atop a systematic body of thought about how we might live the good life, rather than allow ourselves to be sucked into a kind of vortex of sensual pleasure, which, as you should know, leads only to unhappiness in the end.
You do know this, don't you? If not, you're missing the benefits of centuries of thoughtful development of the truths inherent in the wisdom found in our religious and cultural roots. Such truths traditionally provided moral and practical guidelines that directed one's daily actions towards the attainment of true happiness. If you don't understand this, I suspect it's either because you've been poorly educated; or perhaps you once did know this but have rejected it to justify your pursuit of more mere pleasure. Maybe it's some combination of the two. Just know that, unless you rectify your ignorance and/or immoral behavior, you place yourself at a great disadvantage to attaining any degree of happiness in this New Year of 2015. Think about it.
Happy New Year!
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