Virtuous activities??

Chapter 265

Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities." ~ Aristotle

Not many Westerner’s are convinced of this. The WWS - the world wide shutdown - has revealed how vapid we are and shallow we are in our daily activities. While we cage the complaints, as worry about the workers, most locals really mean that what matters today is how inconvenienced I am today. My restaurant is closed, my sport’s team is not playing, my church gathering is not happening, my club is not meeting, my exercise class has been closed down, etc, etc.

But what is virtuous activity? Hahaha! I think most of the folks around here would list the above paragraph’s activities as virtuous! Seriously! Because what you consider virtuous will be a reflection of your values. If your primary values are laziness and amusement, then you want the quickest everything with the least possible effort - whether that is to laugh or eat or get paid - the quickest possible with the least effort. We call it efficiency to make it sound better. Or the use of labor saving devices, or some other catchy tune like that, to make it sound better, more . . . virtuous.

As I sit here thinking about this, there are 100 different paths we could mentally travel, but for the purposes of today, let’s define “virtuous activities” as those actions which benefit someone other than me. I think that will contain it nicely, give it substance and refuse to let me self-righteously define everything I do as virtuous. So that forces another moment or two to think about what I do for others, and that is fairly easy to identify since there is so little I do for others. Giving “virtuous activities” that power of definition, makes it clear that most of what I do benefits and please me, not others.

I have to keep my eye on this one in my life.