Journal // 14th May 2024

May 14

On this day I…

Waking up in a storm, with no direction in mind. Being blown about at the whims of nature, seeing whatever comes my way. This is no way to live. I might as well get a day job.

“If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favourable” - Seneca.

The following are random thoughts I had while finishing, Walden.

Walden, which I am reading right now, by Henry David Thoreau, doesn’t know shit about diet and yet I wonder how many vegan, vegetarian and pescatarians he has created with is words. Making subtle hints that eating meat is akin to cannibalism. I mean the ebook came up in 1854 so I think it’s fair to say that we didn’t know a hell of a lot about a “good” diet back then.

Ideologies are not fact. They are nothing more than opinion. Your interpretation of a thing. Usually without all the facts or before science has had a chance to say otherwise (not that facts get in the way of truth). Of course, your personal opinion is allowed but remember, it’s just an opinion and not a fact.

Thoreau then goes on to talk about eating rats, we know ate fish as he talks of it over and over. So at what point is he a hypocrite?

All the above came from a few pages, (chapters - Baker Farm and Higher Laws).

Don’t just talk on your interests with those who share your ideology, for you will learn nothing. You will just reinforce your/their ideas. You can go from ‘I don’t know’ to ‘ideology’ to ‘fundamentalist’ very quickly.

Instead, share your ideas with those that have an opposing perspective. Talk to others who have a differing opinion. Do not shout and curse and threaten. Just talk.

Honest discourse with your enemies can prevent war.

They/You are neither wrong nor right. You are both and none.

Talk, and share ideas. This is how we learn to understand to empathise.

Patients beat violence.

“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.” - Seneca.

“My dwelling was so small I could hardly entertain an echo” - Henry David Thoreau.

I rarely watch TV or play around on social media. I don’t say this in a superior sense. Thinking that I’m better than those that do. I say it because I have an understanding about myself that you might also share.

Once that TV starts or I open up social media my attention is immediately drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I can thereafter never get back 100% of my attention as some part of it is held there much like the moth that keeps going back to that flame. Tethered by it and as time passes it only gets stronger. Until I burn within it.

This can only be remedied by sleep. About 5-6 hours of it.

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth” - Henry David Thoreau.