Book of RULES?

The UNEXAMINED Life

It is basic philosophical dogma that “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In keeping with this “truism” I have examined and reexamined my life in many ways.  Since we do not have any “do-overs” in our existence, we cannot go back the way writers of textbooks do and reinvent the past.  We can however alter our present and future if we wish to do it.  Our direction need not have any relationship to our past since “the wake does not propel the boat.”  We get to decide “Quo Vadis,” where we are going. There is such a thing as examining too much and living too little so be careful of that trap...also known as "stinking of Zen".  

Of course there are things holding us back, most of which are imaginary. Some have referred to this as our internal book of rules, picked up over time living in society. we are enculturated by our tribe. We then become self-restricted based upon this indoctrination….what else can you call it when it is drilled into you? If we go against the rules our internal judge punishes us somehow.  Or we can discard the rule-book entirely.  This is difficult yes, but not impossible. Many modern day sages, aka self-help authors, suggest a computer metaphor…”Delete the old program and install a new one” based upon where our hopes and dreams lead us.  

I believe that the premise that very few of us are living the lives we had hoped for as children is valid.  At no time did I envision working indoors as a doctor, all hours of the day and night, usually in a windowless room, not to mention the icky parts.  Other people might say “I never dreamed that I would be outdoors with a shovel at a construction site in the middle of winter.”  Only those who are in music, entertainment, the arts, and professional sports are "probably" living their dream, but then I am none of those so I am sure there are some who can’t stand going on stage or the playing field one more time.  The pervasive drug culture in those careers may be the result of their discontent.  Anyway, we can dream that there must have been a better road that we could have selected.  Lawyers wish they were doctors, doctors wish they are venture capitalists, etc. Fireman and cowboy, favorites of children everywhere, never enticed me.  I do think it would have been cool to be Jacques Costeau or Eugenie Clark, or, Robinson Crusoe, even though he was fictional.  Most of us understood that super-heroes were not real, even though there was this “one guy” who jumped off his garage roof wearing a sheet as a cape and broke his leg.  

Being Kwai Chang Kaine always intrigued me, right up to when David Carradine apparently died in an auto-erotic asphyxiation mishap indicating that the Kung Fu guy was probably just an acting part in a TV series. Well. at least I never wanted to be A-Rod or Dennis Rodman.