Stoic philoshophy Saturday - The life well spent.

Articles on Stoic philosophy appear on UU A Way Of Life ministries blog on Saturdays.

From "On The Shortness of Life" by Lucius Seneca

Comment:

These are the first two sentences of Seneca's little book entitled, "On The Shortness Of Life."

Seneca raises right at the outset the question of what is a life well spent?

If a person spends their live well any time span is enough. If a person wastes their time no life span is long enough.

With all the crap, kids are taught in high school, has any teacher helped them consider what a well spent life might look like? Has any teacher helped them investigate the answer to the question, "What will make me happy?"

Why isn't philosophy taught in high school?

For the investigation of the answer to this question of what will make me happy one turns to marketing in our society, and religion.

Unitarian Universalism offers some answers to this question of "What will make me happy," and "what is a life that is well spent" but I have rarely heard these questions directly tackled.

Perhaps it is about time.

The third principle of Unitarian Universalism is the affirmation and promotion of the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The first question of the student might be, where do I search? The UU answer is "everywhere and anywhere" and, of course, this answer is so broad, vague, and ambiuous it is useless and more than useless, defeating.

Stoic philosophy is not the only place to look for the answer to the question of what will make me happy, but it is a start. And Seneca tells us that it is a well lived life and of course the next question is what is that?

Seneca, like a Universalist, tells us that "Nature has been good to us." "Nature" meaning for some of us "God."

A Course in Miracles tells us that love is our natural inheritance if we want it. Most of us prefer our own willfulness rather than love. A Course In Miracles asks us, I imagine, giggling, "Would you rather be right or be happy?"