Ways to Live
Dec. 12th, 2012 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI found the book What Color is Your Parachute? For Retirement: Planning Now for the Life You Want for $1, and it looked interesting so I bought it.
Finally on page 70 I get to the first exercise. It involves ranking twelve "ways to live." In the 1940's, Charles Morris from U. Chicago "identified major paths of life or ways to live in the world that have been used by people in various times and places across human history.
"These Ways to Live grew organically out of human cultures over thousands of years. They've been associated with a variety of different religious, ethical, and philosophical traditions--but the Ways are not those exact traditions or belief systems. ... Each represents not a single value, but a values system."
This sounds awesome, so I turn the page to see which ones speak to me.
None of them. Dang.
For example, take Improvement: "Working continuously for realistic solutions to specific problems." Sounds depressing. The best one for me might be Refinement: "Understanding, appreciating, and preserving the best in society." But actually, I like to understand all kinds of interesting things, not just sociology, and preserving the best, again, sounds hard and therefore depressing.
It just took a couple of minutes to think of one I'd like though--Education: Learning interesting things and sharing them with others.
Then we're supposed to think of times in the past when we did this. I taught my brother how to read (when I was six and he was four). I became a camp counselor, learning all sorts of cool summer camp things and then showing them to campers. I write in this blog.
Then we're supposed to list our values, identities (roles), and priorities (for time, money and other resources), but that didn't seem very relevant or useful.
Then we're supposed to look at the top six industries that target retirees: investments, insurance, real estate, travel, retail, anti-aging. Ha, the travel industry has my number with things like Elderhostel and alumni learning trips. But of course there are many ways to learn cool things.
Cake of the Day
I don't even have a picture of this whole cake, but this couple sure grabbed my attention:
You can see some of the rest of the cake in the background. Here they are at another angle with a different background:
Finally on page 70 I get to the first exercise. It involves ranking twelve "ways to live." In the 1940's, Charles Morris from U. Chicago "identified major paths of life or ways to live in the world that have been used by people in various times and places across human history.
"These Ways to Live grew organically out of human cultures over thousands of years. They've been associated with a variety of different religious, ethical, and philosophical traditions--but the Ways are not those exact traditions or belief systems. ... Each represents not a single value, but a values system."
This sounds awesome, so I turn the page to see which ones speak to me.
None of them. Dang.
For example, take Improvement: "Working continuously for realistic solutions to specific problems." Sounds depressing. The best one for me might be Refinement: "Understanding, appreciating, and preserving the best in society." But actually, I like to understand all kinds of interesting things, not just sociology, and preserving the best, again, sounds hard and therefore depressing.
It just took a couple of minutes to think of one I'd like though--Education: Learning interesting things and sharing them with others.
Then we're supposed to think of times in the past when we did this. I taught my brother how to read (when I was six and he was four). I became a camp counselor, learning all sorts of cool summer camp things and then showing them to campers. I write in this blog.
Then we're supposed to list our values, identities (roles), and priorities (for time, money and other resources), but that didn't seem very relevant or useful.
Then we're supposed to look at the top six industries that target retirees: investments, insurance, real estate, travel, retail, anti-aging. Ha, the travel industry has my number with things like Elderhostel and alumni learning trips. But of course there are many ways to learn cool things.
Cake of the Day
I don't even have a picture of this whole cake, but this couple sure grabbed my attention:
You can see some of the rest of the cake in the background. Here they are at another angle with a different background: