🖌️ Monday Muse
The Monday Muse is a weekly collection of reminders, insights, and maxims on the art of living. The term “muse” has two meanings: (1) a state of deep thought; and (2) a source of inspiration. May the following (in a small way) be a source of contemplation, insight, and wisdom to live your highest good.
📌 Perennial Reminder(s)
The American philosopher and author John Kaag on William James and wonder:
For James, stars do not burn, much less appear, in perfect order, and human lives are not settled in advance. As Emerson wrote in his poem ‘Circles,’ one of James’s favorites: ‘let me remind the reader that I am only an experimenter.’ The ‘maybe’ remains constant, or as constant as a ‘maybe’ can be. This is for the best: it gives us something to watch and expect and experience. Persistent variation gives rise to persistent wonder, and, for James, this sense of mystery—of chance—was often enough to see him through when other practical measures failed him. […]
Source: Sick Souls Healthy Minds (via Reading & the Good Life)
📜 Perennial Maxim(s)
The psychologist and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl of the power to choose:
Why is it so easy to forget that we have the power to choose?
In his classic Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl observed, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”
💡 Perennial Insight(s)
The American Trappist monk Thomas Merton on true happiness:
A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found: for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy. There is a false and momentary happiness in self-satisfaction, but it always leads to sorrow because it narrows and deadens our spirit. True happiness is found in unselfish love, a love which increases in proportion as it is shared. There is no end to the sharing of love, and, therefore, the potential happiness of such love is without limit. […]
Source: No Man is an Island
🎧 Latest Podcast(s)
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W. Bertolotti
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