age – Open Thinkering

Character is a thing you do every day

Posted on August 3, 2024August 3, 2024 by Doug Belshaw

Tim Dowling writing in The Guardian about the passing of his 102 year-old father (my emphasis):

I can’t tell you all the things I learned from my father, over my life and his, but I can tell you a few: that you can always make people happy with a story told against yourself; that self-esteem is great, but possibly overrated; that character is not your reputation, but a thing you do every day; that your only real enemy is fear, unless it’s a fear of heights, which is really just a specific form of common sense. And that as you age, a little caution is no bad thing.

I’m hoping my own dad, who turns 75 this year, will be around for a long time yet. But the reason for sharing the quotation is Dowling’s channelling of Aristotle, who can be translated as saying something like:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

One of the things I’m really appreciating on this holiday is the chance to reflect on my life. While my daily habits are productive and healthy for me personally, and helpful for my family, they’re very much focused on the short-term. I need to think bigger. Life is short.

Letting go of my pre-pandemic self

Posted on August 24, 2020August 24, 2020 by Doug Belshaw

Around 20 years ago, as part of my undergraduate degree in Philosophy, I took a module entitled Mind, Brain, and Personal Identity. The lecturer, George Botterill, a certified chess genius and extremely thoughtful guy, blew my mind by demonstrating via thought experiments that we can’t really be the same ‘person’ over a human lifetime.

We contain multitudes.

Ever since then, I’ve found this idea very liberating. I don’t have to be the same person I was when I was younger, I can choose to be different.

At the end of this year I turn 40. The worst of the pandemic will (hopefully) be over by then and I’ll also have finished most of my therapy sessions. As a result, it makes sense to think about how my pre-pandemic and post-pandemic life will differ.

For me, it’s worth remembering that Aristotle, perhaps one of the greatest thinkers ever to have lived, remained in Plato’s academy until he was almost 40 years of age. After this, he was tutor to Alexander the Great, and then wrote most of what he remembered for in the next 12 years.

I’m reminding myself of this, as there’s a tendency in our culture to think of people in their forties and later as being past their prime. That’s may be true in terms of physical prowess, but not in terms of things of lasting importance such as writing and thinking. Of course, I’m not putting myself in the same league as Aristotle(!) it’s just an illustrative example.

So I’m considering this time as a gestation period, as a time when I’m still in the chrysalis, waiting to emerge. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like in practice, but instead of looking back to being a caterpillar, I’m instead going to focus on turning into a butterfly.

Unlike the physical transformation that the caterpillar undergoes, my metamorphosis might be less obvious to those around me. Shifts in worldview and outlook sometimes are. But it’s an important thing to note for me: to give myself permission to let go of my pre-pandemic self.

This post is Day 37 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com