Ataraxia?

I had it all... even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections - proof that they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working, indigenous peoples of ... wherever... You buy furniture - You tell yourself that this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa - then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug... Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.


What is your definition for a successful life?
I encourage the opinion of anyone who feels compelled to reply to this entry - no matter what your outlook.

The night before leaving for the Yukon I spent it at my old friend Rob's place in Langley, on the mainland... He and I stayed up the entire night walking around town, stopping at an all-night coffee shop, and talking mostly about personal dilemma and personal definition of success. He and I are very different in many ways and I suppose that is what makes us great friends. He did the university diploma, found himself a good career working with the RCMP, invested in a condo and new truck right away, invested in the stock market and settled into a life of fiscal advancement. These are things that give him a deep sense of achievement and value and they make him happy and so I have a lot of respect for him for that reason.

Having just finished watching the movie Fight Club with his wife and brother-in-law, a movie that is based upon a book by Chuck Palahniuk which outlines and criticizes the imposition of modern society, I was again afflicted with this overwhelming claustrophobic feeling associated with the notion of settling in someplace and digging in some roots.. and I don't really understand why I have this reservation.
I suppose, in being the agnostic that I am, I'm constantly conflicted with the idea that if we're only here once - if indeed this is it - then shouldn't we seek out to live and experience as much as our lives allow us to experience? Spend our lives traveling and discovering as many things as we are able, because we'll never be given another chance and why squander it on achieving things that only really exist because we accept them as real and important? The other half of me says, 'is that something you will want at the age of 40? At the age of 30?' ... My answer is, 'I don't know'. Aubrey seems to think that I am going through a mid-life crisis at the age of 24. ;-)

Western society encourages us to live a conventional life of walking the line and jumping the hoops of capital gain and material acquisition.
Many people's view on a successful life consists of family and career - bank accounts, credit ratings and financial status - investment, mortgage and certified education..
Does this allow them to define themselves? Is it what truly makes people happy or is it in the recognition of other people's approval of these things that allows them to feel good about their lives? ... Does this truly make people happy? And if so, then why are some of the highest rates of psychological disorders, obesity, dysfunctional and unhappy families, domestic murders and suicides (excluding the middle-east) exist within western society?

These are questions that I often think about.



Joseph Sieben


PS: yes Christina, I am fully convinced that I was meant to be a pirate and that though they don't exist anymore, it's entirely possible to somehow become one.

Angela

Liard River - Yukon Territory

Liard River - Yukon Territory

Wye Lake

Lounging

Full Moon from the front step

Full Moon from the front step

Lounging

Lounging

Eagle outside the door

Eagle from the front step

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4 Comments - Add Public Comment or Send Private Message

August 24th 2006 - Christina: Oh joe!!!

I to believe that you are in a mid-life crisis just as aubrey does. if you need to talk i charge $75.04 per hour.... i can cure whats ailing ya, im full of wisdom. Oh and joe i have more gold than you!!! ARRRRRRRR!!!! mate

August 25th 2006 - Author's Reply pepito: hahahaha

#1) No I don't need anyone to talk to - that is what my future Parrot will be for. #2) Never never never tell a Pirate that you have more gold than him.

September 22nd 2006 - Icky Vicki: Props to Ishmael!

Contentment makes a successful life. The individual defines their own version of contentment, and they have to get off their lazy ass to look for it, wherever it may be. Satisfaction can never be found and the world is congested with whiners on the opposite side of the spectrum. My version of contentment (ignorance?) is multidimensional... I'm content today filling my little brain up everyday with endless knowledge on the paleoenvironments of the world 3 billion years ago, cuddling and chatting with my sisters and friends, reading fun books about genetics & anthropology, eating strawberry yogurt cups, sleeping in my comfy sleeping sac, playing in the forest, and knowing that when I get cold I can run to my apartment where the freezing weather can't get me. Is this my ideal situation? No. But am I content? Yes. Someday I will be able to do my own field work in the middle of the Arctic or Rainforest, reading the earth systems myself. I will be bathing in the nearby river. I will be cuddling up with my children in my solar powered (or hopefully by then there will be improved technology) homestead (we will move seasonally or annually, depending on our environmental demands) and feeding them nutritious foods. We will go out in the day to learn the ways I was taught by my Mother and Grandmother and in the nights I will read to them to teach them the ways others were schooled. My current and future "successful" life includes love, compassion, and furthering my limits. Stop laughing Joseph!! Jerkoid.

September 25th 2006 - Joseph: Jerrrrrrkoid????

JERKOID?! hahaha... I wasn't laughing!!! ... Though I am now. It's wonderful that you find contentment in eating strawberry yogurt cups, Vicki.. ;-P haha. I find contentment, at least for now, in drinking copious amounts of coffee and smoking cigarettes while responding to your response. :-D

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