so to see other people explicitly disavowing any interest in giving or doing any more, and being content and happy (which are two different things) in that position, makes me wonder if I am going about things the wrong way.
It is possible, with some luck and some application, to discover places where one can give or do in places that seem clearly to be the optimal use for what talents and energies one has, and I can see how the combination of that and the sort of tactical application of self-knowledge such that it is clear where the line between doing X amount of stuff per month, recuperating appropriately, and being able to do said X amount of stuff, more or less, into the foreseeable future, is preferable to doing 3X amount of stuff per month in ways which burn one out at some level or other, such that the net amount of stuff one does is maximised [ a form of tactical thinkinng also subject to taking on ongoing commitments such that one is expected to and indeed intends to be around into the indefinite future ] can all come out looking like disavowing any interest in doing more; I don't believe it impossible for a person to be genuinely doing the best they can do with what they have, and to recognise that, and to be content with it, and in some ways I am comfortingly close to that myself. [ Need I specify that I am not taking what you say here as an accusation ? Probably not, but it would do less harm to say it superfluously than not say it and be misread. ]
That said, I have no argument with the world being full of selfish bastards with seriously damaged self/other identification memesets when it comes to whose benefit they work for. One of the ways in which I am not a nice person is the degree to which my emotional reaction to that attitude is to wish to render them down for bonemeal.
Basically, I think making what useful contributions to society I best can comes under the heading of "I do these things because I want to live in a world where people do these things" for me, internally. [ Which is a fairly large chunk of how I live my life. ]
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Date: 2005-12-13 06:06 pm (UTC)It is possible, with some luck and some application, to discover places where one can give or do in places that seem clearly to be the optimal use for what talents and energies one has, and I can see how the combination of that and the sort of tactical application of self-knowledge such that it is clear where the line between doing X amount of stuff per month, recuperating appropriately, and being able to do said X amount of stuff, more or less, into the foreseeable future, is preferable to doing 3X amount of stuff per month in ways which burn one out at some level or other, such that the net amount of stuff one does is maximised [ a form of tactical thinkinng also subject to taking on ongoing commitments such that one is expected to and indeed intends to be around into the indefinite future ] can all come out looking like disavowing any interest in doing more; I don't believe it impossible for a person to be genuinely doing the best they can do with what they have, and to recognise that, and to be content with it, and in some ways I am comfortingly close to that myself. [ Need I specify that I am not taking what you say here as an accusation ? Probably not, but it would do less harm to say it superfluously than not say it and be misread. ]
That said, I have no argument with the world being full of selfish bastards with seriously damaged self/other identification memesets when it comes to whose benefit they work for. One of the ways in which I am not a nice person is the degree to which my emotional reaction to that attitude is to wish to render them down for bonemeal.
Basically, I think making what useful contributions to society I best can comes under the heading of "I do these things because I want to live in a world where people do these things" for me, internally. [ Which is a fairly large chunk of how I live my life. ]