I know that these essays are coming at you faster than many of you can keep up. I wrote them all out over the last few months, and am only now sending them, after I deep edit each of them. I am waiting a couple days between each section, because I want to get them all polished and done so that I can focus only on my next great essay, which I’ve been researching for these last few weeks. I think the next essay will take three or four months to finish, so of course I will be emailing less in the meantime.
Meanwhile, this is the first section on the next strategy of life, pragmatism, which is structuring our habits to make life flow. I would say that I am more creative than pragmatic, so this is a virtue I strive to improve daily.
Take care, Caretakers! Daniel Christopher June
1. Pragmatism is Economy
Pragmatism is the practical business of getting stuff done. If creativity is the process which best protects independence, then pragmatism is the virtue that both best protects creativity and also grows from it. Pragmatism is the set of habits that allow efficiency, regularity, economy, so that all the dumb little chores of life get done with minimum fuss. The game of life is about perfecting the little things we have to do – waking early, eating our meals, showering, getting the boring parts of our job done – with a minimum of energy, a maximum of precision, so perfectly and unthinkingly, that they never snag energy from the important things.
Pragmatism regulates energy. We have only so much care, only so much mental focus. We can get our minds to produce more with exercise (thinking) and diet (study), but ultimately, this energy comes from our emotions, is our emotions, and so a mental hygiene, a healthy heart, is the key to having energy when we need it. The strategies for this include developing methods for life, with creativity yes, but working them out with discipline, sticking to them, working them out. And so pragmatism is a discipline. We require a method, we need to wire emotional circuits, we have to get things done. The game can only be won with a mix of seriousness.
Energy is in constant flux. The logic of how it moves is based on the Constitution of the man, how he structures the government of his actions. Each man has a constitution which structures his temperament, and sets the economy of his actions in order. Language and money are like blood. They too transfer effort and values, they nourish like blood and smooth like oil. Language coordinates actions between people, exists primarily to control the feelings of others to coordinate action. And so language is made of energy, language is liquid desire, a guiding hand that brings nerve to nerve, touch to touch.
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Perfection
Is
Easy
perfectidius.com
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