Sublime

A telos crisis is defined by the fact that people in it don’t know what their purpose is. When this happens, they become fragile. Nietzsche says that he who has a “why” to live for can endure any “how.” If you know what your purpose is, you can handle the setbacks. But when you don’t know what your purpose is, any setback can lead to total collapse

If anyone knows about having a lot on the line, it’s Jordan Walters of the Silicon Valley branch of the investment house Smith Barney. Jordan is exactly the kind of person you’d look for in a financial planner: he’s calm, he’s thoughtful, and he always takes the time to listen. As we sat down in his office and sipped from the minibar-sized can of a

“The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family. It’s become quite clear to me as I’ve been sick. If you don’t have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don’t have much at all. Love is so supremely important. As our great poet Auden said, ‘Love e

in addition to the importance of hard work, Johnson said the other four lessons from Churchill’s remarkable life were to aim high; to never allow mistakes or criticism to get you down; to waste no energy on grudges, duplicity, or infighting; and to make room for joy.)

Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl

The key point is that values-based living makes goals meaningful,

The life appropriate to a human being—the life appropriate to a rational being—is not a luxury above the basic requirements of survival. It is the basic requirement of survival. On the individual level, the person who refuses to think, to act, to pursue values, either perishes outright or exists as a parasite on the efforts of persons more rational

MARCH 18 The Life of a Caretaker