Month: July 2020

Struggle

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It seems to me that while the idea of struggling appears to be simpler and easier to understand than the idea of sacrificing, people seem more comfortable with sacrifice than they are with struggle. The idea that one gives up something in order to (hopefully) gain something of greater value is considered in the society I live in to be among the greatest things a person can do. Those who make sacrifices are considered the greatest among people. As common examples, figures such as Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi are considered exemplars of sacrifice, giving up their own luxuries and comforts in order to serve others. But is it sacrifice that they have done, or is it struggle (or perhaps a combination of the two)?

When I use the term “struggle,” I have in mind something similar to what in the Buddhist tradition is often referred to as “suffering.” Where suffering might be understood as a state of being, where one is not entirely settled (always wanting; always unsatisfied), struggle is the act one would take in order to at least try to escape suffering. Reading over what I’ve just written, I think I’ve made my point more confused rather than clearer, so I will try again.

When I graduated high school, my parents gave me a Toyota Corolla. It wasn’t a new car; it was my mom’s old car. They suggested I had earned it by doing well in school. However, I didn’t view the situation as they did. I didn’t understand. For me, high school wasn’t much work at all. Most of my classes came easy to me and I rarely (if ever) needed to study. I did not view high school to be something I had to work very hard at, and so graduating high school did not come with any significant sense of achievement. In fact, for me, I was simply happy to get out so that I could move on with my life. The gift of a car, under these circumstances, was not something I had earned. It was simply something I gained without any real effort. And I unfortunately treated this car with the same amount of respect as I felt toward my high school career. In other words, I ran the car into the ground, not taking care of it and damaging it greatly over the few years I drove it.

Later in my life, when I again was in need of a vehicle, I found an opportunity to purchase an Nissan Xterra at a significantly discounted price. I had been working in “the real world” for a while by then, and had learned to save money reasonably well. I had the cash in my savings account to cover the entire cost of the vehicle. This time around, I knew precisely where the money came from, as I had to earn it through my labours. Using my own father’s suggested calculations, the price of the Xterra (for me) was approximately four months’ wages. That is, were I to have set aside every single penny I had earned over the course of four months of my working, not using that money for anything else (such as rent or food), then I would have earned just enough to purchase this vehicle. Keep in mind that means working approximately eight hours a day, five days a week, for about sixteen weeks. That’s a significant expenditure of my efforts for this vehicle.

In the case of this Xterra, I understood the efforts I had to make in order to earn this vehicle. This vehicle was worth approximately four months of my life. Knowing and understanding this, I treated the vehicle with much more respect. While still not perfect, I at least tried to maintain the vehicle, performing the routine repairs and upkeep on the vehicle. I say I tried, because I discovered years later where I had been deficient when I was forced to deal with a broken timing belt. If you are not aware of such things, you’d have been in the same situation as I was at the time this happened. Most people told me that such an incident was unrecoverable, and that I ought to simply purchase a new vehicle. I was very lucky I had a friend who helped me to replace the belt, and I am happy to say I still drive the Xterra to this day.

The situation I found myself in with the Corolla was not struggle, but the situation with the Xterra was struggle. Struggle, for me, is the situation where one has to put in effort or work in order to gain something. One cannot be given struggle; one must earn it themselves through their own efforts. When I work toward something, then I am struggling. Struggle, for me, is not a negative (nor positive) thing. Struggle is simply a way to describe how something came about. If I gain something through my efforts, such as working a job, then I have struggled for it, in this case money. If I gain something because someone simply gives it to me, such as the Corolla that my parents gave me for graduating high school, then I have not struggled for it. Thus, struggle is a measure of the effort I make toward my projects.

As the example above may also demonstrate, struggling toward my projects also brings with it a respect for those projects. The more I struggle for something, the more I respect the thing I gain from my struggles. The more I respect the thing I gain from my struggles, the greater the value of the thing I have gained, at least from my perspective. If you have been reading all my posts up to this point, you will already know that I consider value to be something we each apply to things in this world. In other words, the Corolla that my parents owned before they gave it to me was likely of great value to them, as they had to work hard to earn that car. However, for me, the Corolla had very little value as I did not have to struggle for it very much at all. Struggle is part of a process that assigns value to things.

Earlier in this post, I mentioned suffering from Buddhism, and suggested it had a relationship with struggle. Suffering, as I understand it, is not a negative (nor positive) thing either. Suffering is simply a state of being unsettled. To become a buddha, one needs to no longer be in a state of suffering. To put this another way, a buddha is no longer in a state of change. Suffering is related to changing, like being in a state of flux. If you look around you, you will likely appreciate that everything in this world is in a state of change. There is no permanence in this world. We may want there to be permanence in things, but really, everything in this world is impermanent. The ground is eroding through the movement of air and water, our bodies are undergoing countless chemical and mechanical changes, the siding on my house is wearing down and will eventually need to be replaced or repainted. Everything is changing. We are changing. We are thus suffering. To be a buddha, we need to bring ourselves into a state of no longer changing, no longer suffering. The acts we take in our attempts to end suffering are struggles.

I feel like I may have overdone it in this post. Really, all I wanted to describe was what I take struggling to be. I consider it to be an incredibly important thing. Struggling is one of the important ways I generate value in my world. I work very hard, and put a lot of effort into, the things that I consider of greatest value. My relationships with other people are probably the best example of this.

Relationships, as I see them, are not static or unchanging things either. I must put effort into my relationships in order to generate the value in those relationships. The more effort I put in, the greater the value the relationship has for me. But relationships do not simply get to a state of unchangingness. Relationships change and evolve, just like everything else in this world. Thus, not only do I need to put a significant amount of effort into my relationships to begin with, in order to generate their significant value to me, I must also continue to put significant amounts of effort into my relationships on an ongoing basis. Relationships are about struggle. The more I struggle in my relationships, the greater those relationships are.

An example of what I am taking about. When I was in high school, I dated someone whom I still, to this day, consider very special. I know that that relationship is long since passed, and I do not expect to ever be in a relationship like it again, but it was special and I will always remember it. Why it was so special was the shear amount of struggle I had to put into the relationship. My parents did not want me to have a relationship with this person, and this person’s parents did not want them to have a relationship with me. We both had to fight our respective parents, and our respective friends, in order to maintain our relationship. It very much was a Romeo and Juliet sort of relationship. We both agreed that we wanted to be together, and so we both struggled very hard for the relationship. Of course, like the tragedy by Shakespeare, it also collapsed in equally fantastic fashion. I blame myself for what occurred, but the truth is we both had our respective parts to play.

The point of all of this is simply that struggle is a key and important aspect of my life. Struggle represents all the effort I put into everything, and the value that I assign to my world though all that effort. In my next post, I will discuss how sacrifice and struggle work together, and why I consider them the greatest realization for me.

Sacrifice

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My father told me that he was trying to set up my life such that I would never need to sacrifice. Ever. When I started talking about sacrificing, it upset him a great deal. It was as if he had failed as a parent or something. He believed I should never sacrifice, and I was telling him I thought it was necessary to sacrifice. Perhaps we were simply in the middle of a great miscommunication.

Sacrifice can mean a number of things. In this post, I am not referring to taking a chicken or a goat and slaughtering it to appease some pagan god. However, what I have in mind is possibly still related in some way. For my father, to sacrifice is to give something up. Not just to give up anything though; it has to be something I consider valuable. The more valuable that something is to me, the greater the sacrifice if I am to give it up. Conversely, if the thing holds no value to me, then it is not a sacrifice to give it up. So a significant aspect of sacrifice is value.

Why a person might sacrifice is not always clear. Often, one makes a sacrifice in order to gain something else they may consider more valuable. In the case of sacrificing a chicken, the person sacrificing the chicken likely holds great value in the chicken, as a source of food for his or her family. However, it may be for a thing of greater value; the sacrifice might be in order to convince their god to provide favorable conditions to grow their crops, or perhaps to keep their ships safe while travelling in the Aegean Sea. The person is giving up one thing of value for another. So sacrifice can often be a transaction of a sort.

Are there sacrifices that are not of this transactional nature? Can I make a sacrifice without gaining something else of value in the process? It may be argued that when I sacrifice my time when volunteering that I gain nothing in return (that is why it is called volunteering), but others gain something of value from my sacrifice. If considered in isolation by myself, I may sacrifice without gaining anything, but others still gain from my sacrifice, so it seems like the transactional nature still exists.

If I assume that all sacrifices involve some sort of transaction, then it seems like sacrifice is all about giving up one thing for another. And if the sacrifice is an appropriate act, I might assume that the thing being sacrificed is of lesser value than the thing gained from the sacrifice. Are there cases where something of great value is given up for something of lesser value? Again, if looked at from one person’s perspective, this may appear to happen occasionally. When I give up my time (something of great value to me) in order to help someone with moving their furniture (something of little direct value to me), then I seem to have made such an exchange. However, there is a lot going on in that transaction. I may value the relationship with the someone, and helping them may increase the strength of that relationship. So it may not be so simple for me. Furthermore, the value of moving their furniture is of great value to the other person, whereas my time may not be of significant value to them. This assessment of valuation may quickly become difficult to estimate properly.

If we briefly consider a utilitarian argument, as this is a very popular ethical theory these days, perhaps a sacrifice is a good sacrifice if it increases the overall happiness or well being in the world. That is, the thing being given up is producing less happiness than the thing gained in the sacrifice, for all people. So even if I don’t value the thing gained, I can assume that there are others who do. Again, assuming that I am making a good sacrifice, and not a poor sacrifice.

With a bit of an understanding of sacrifice, I now return to my father’s intentions as he expressed them to me in my youth. He did not want me to ever have to sacrifice. But this seems to make no sense. He seems to want me to never give anything up, even if it may offer me something greater as a result. When I pressed him on the issue later, that is indeed what he had in mind. Specifically, he did not want me to ever have to give up anything. He would still be happy for me to gain other things of greater value, so long as I didn’t have to give up anything to get them. He simply wanted me to not have to give up anything.

It took me a while to recognize the flaws in this sort of world view. Most of my life is filled with acts of a transactional nature. I consider my experiences playing Magic: the Gathering (a collectible card game) to be the most significant in teaching me about transactions and valuation, both by playing the game and by trading cards with other players. Within the game, one often has to give up a card in order to gain another card or effect. Those who play the game well have figured out the best times to give up a card, and often the giving up of cards leads to their victory in the game. When trading cards, what seems most important is to find someone who values your card the most (even if you do not) and who values the card you want the least (regardless of the value you are assigning to the card). In other words, it seems more important for me to understand the value others are assigning to things than the value I am assigning to things.

To sum up what I’ve discussed thus far, to sacrifice is to give up something of value for something of greater value. For the sacrifice to be a good sacrifice, I need to give up something of lesser value for something of greater value. The values of the things in question are related to me, but are also related to others. For me to consider a sacrifice good, I need to value the thing given up less than the thing gained. For others to consider a sacrifice good, they need to value the thing given up less than the thing gained. In other words, I may consider something a sacrifice while others do not. I may consider myself a hero (having made a good sacrifice), while others might consider me a villain (having made no sacrifice at all, perhaps even having taken advantage of someone else in the act).

This all seems to suggest that when sacrificing, I ought to consider others, lest I gain a poor reputation.

I disagree with my father’s assessment. One who never gives up anything is a hoarder, and hoarding overwhelms a person after a while. The situation where the things you own end up owning you. But then, one might consider hoarding a sort of sacrifice too; hoarding may be sacrificing sacrificing in order to hold more stuff. This sounds much like begging the question, so I will not dwell on this. I will simply suggest that hoarding is not sacrificing. And with that, hoarding is not a good choice because I need to give up things in order to gain better things.

If it is not clear, during this discussion, the things being given up and the things gained through sacrifice need not be tangible or physical. My time is not something easily grasped, nor is its value easily estimated. Only I can say whether my time is valuable or not. However, sometimes when thinking about sacrifice, it may be easier to consider physical things, like Magic cards, so that it will be easier to understand what is going on.

For me, sacrifice is a fundamentally important skill. From my observations of the world, in order to gain things of significant value, one needs to sacrifice. Furthermore, giving up extremely valuable things does tend to get me things of even greater value. These sacrifices do tend to be quite risky, as there are times when the thing gained is not guaranteed (the sacrifice is for the possibly of gain, rather than the guarantee of gain). However, with the transitory nature of our world, most things we sacrifice are lost eventually anyway. At least through a sacrifice, we can hope to gain more than if we had tried to hold onto the things that cannot be held onto.

Keeping a Schedule

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I have been aiming to post every Sunday. This is Tuesday. Clearly, I’ve been unable to keep my desired schedule.

My excuse is that I was away on a trip. I actually brought my laptop with me, and I did log in with every intention of writing something. However, as I was on this trip, my mind was elsewhere. I decided it would be better to let it go and try again later. Hence, why I am here today.

This topic seems incredibly silly. Talking about keeping a schedule seems quite pedantic. However, I think this topic might be a good lead-in into a topic that is of great interest to me. When asked what skill or quality I possess that is among my greatest strengths, I have been indicating of late that flexibility and adaptability are the strengths I aspire to. This blog, and the schedule I have been trying to keep, present a significant example of what I am referring to.

I do agree that having and keeping a schedule are important for one to do. I pride myself on being a very reliable person; someone who’s word is extremely reliable. If I say I will do something, you can rely on me to actually follow through and do that something. So is the case with this blog. If you are following my blog, then you can expect me to post once a week, and probably on Sunday.

However, if I embrace this schedule too rigidly, I may find that I do not have something significant or valuable to post. I may simply start rambling about silly topics. (You may consider this topic quite silly already.) Alternatively, I might adopt a bit of flexibility in my schedule. I can still aim for once a week, for example, but not necessarily always on Sunday. Perhaps it is best if I aim for Sunday to write something of value, but if I do not have anything worthwhile to say, I may wait a couple days until I am ready to write. This is what it means to be flexible and adaptable. To not hold a position that is too stubborn or rigid. To be able to alter my path, even just slightly, in order to better accomplish my projects.

It has been my observation of this world that being too rigid or stubborn tends to have negative consequences. Rigidly holding onto a particular path often leads to disappointment and failure. My first time attending university is a good example of this. I entered university with the goal of becoming a mechanical engineer. I had made this decision before I started my first class. No matter what, I was going to achieve this goal.

Unfortunately, as many of you may already realize, attending university (especially in the first year) is a complicated process of exploration. Most people are fresh out of high school, and still live with their parents. For some, they may be moving out and will be on their own (without their parents) for the first time. It can be a very stressful and uncertain time for a new university student. This was how it was for me.

I took many classes, as one who attends university often does. Some classes I really enjoyed and excelled in. Others I did not. However, my goal was set. I held on rigidly to that goal. I was going to be a mechanical engineer, no matter what. Many things occurred in my personal life while attending university. Most of these things were experiences of personal growth and evolution. I was changing as a person. I was starting to exercise independence in a way I had never done before. I had a lot to learn in this new arena. My grades in university reflected the significant changes that were occurring. To the point that in my fourth year, the dean sat down with me and we came to the agreement that I needed to spend some time away from the university. I had been kicked out.

Almost exactly twenty years later, I returned to university. It was a different university, as I had moved to another city. I had a different approach; a different goal this time. I did not enter university expecting to attain any particular degree or credential. I started out with a few philosophy classes, and some creative technology classes. I decided I would see what happened. If I enjoyed a class, I would continue taking classes in that area or field. If I did not enjoy a class, I would still finish the class, but I would not take more classes in that area or field.

It turned out that I very much enjoyed both philosophy and creative technology, but I also discovered I enjoyed philosophy a lot more. So over the terms, I signed up for more and more philosophy classes. In the last couple years, I declared I would be an honours student with a major in philosophy. This progression worked out very well for me. Not only did I complete the degree, but I also finished with high honours (my average for all my classes was above 85%). I accomplished what I was unable to accomplish my first time at university.

Some people have suggested I am gifted or special. I don’t agree. Perhaps I have an affinity for philosophy. Perhaps, instead of being rigid in my approach, I allowed the classes to guide my choices. Instead of saying I was going to go to university and get a philosophy degree, I said I would go to university and see what happens. I said I would allow my classes, instructors, my whole experience guide my path. I believe that was the secret to my success.

I recognize that some rigidity and stubbornness is needed. There were a few classes I took that were exceedingly difficult for me. I honestly do not know how I passed my second level Japanese class. I adopted a philosophy of still finishing classes that I signed up for, and in some cases that required a great deal of rigidity. But after those classes were completed, I also reflected deeply on my experiences in those classes. I allowed my experience to guide my decision making in subsequent terms. I adapted my schedule to those experiences.

This blog is for me to express myself. If you are reading this, then you are one of my readers. If you’ve read all my posts, then you are my followers. This blog is a reflection of my thoughts and experiences. And like the person I have evolved into today, this blog must remain flexible and adaptable as well.

In my next post, I am going to try to start tackling the most significant realization I’ve made in my life. The observation that I made in my youth that has helped me to become who I am today. The philosophy that has allowed me to be successful in so many endeavors, and has allowed me to find happiness in this often challenging world. The philosophy I call “Struggle and Sacrifice.”

Wearing Face Masks

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In North America, whether or not one should wear a face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic is a controversial topic. It is controversial because there is no consistent guidance that has been provided by the various authorities regarding what the answer is. Toward the beginning of the pandemic, it was suggested that people ought not wear face masks. More recently, it has been suggested that people ought to wear face masks. So which is it? And how do I know what the correct answer is?

When I traveled to Japan for a vacation, I observed that a portion of the population there were wearing face masks. This was years before COVID-19, so they were not wearing masks in order to “flatten the curve” or anything like that. Upon further investigation, what I learned was that people in Japan would wear a face mask when they themselves were ill. In other words, those who were sick would wear face masks in order to reduce the spread of their own infections to the other people around them. The mask was chosen to protect others, not to protect themselves. This line of reasoning is not the same as the line of reasoning being used in North America presently.

In North America, when the discussion of face masks arises, most are concerned with whether the face mask will protect themselves from others, not with whether they will be protecting others from themselves. This is tantamount to the difference between egoism and what I might refer to as empathism.

Egoism is what I would call the world view held by a person who is primarily concerned with their own interests, at least when confronted with the interests of others. An egoist will make decisions based on what is best for themself. In the case of wearing a face mask, the egoist will decide whether to don the mask based primarily on whether the mask will benefit themself. If the mask will not benefit themself, then they are likely to decide not to wear the mask.

In contrast, I would call empathism the world view held by a person who is primarily concerned with the interests of others, especially when confronted with their own interests. An empathist will make decisions based on what is best for those around themself, possibly even following decisions that are detrimental to themself. In the case of wearing a face mask, the empathist will decide whether to don the mask based primarily on whether the mask will benefit those around them. If wearing the mask will not benefit others, then they are likely to decide not to wear the mask.

It should be clear that no individual is strictly and entirely either an egoist or an empathist. Each person will behave differently depending on their unique circumstances, personal history, and a plethora of other factors. However, it may be argued that most people, if observed for a period of time, exhibit traits that lean toward one side or the other of this dichotomy. For example, Donald Trump, the current president of the United States of America (USA), seems to hold a world view leaning toward the end of egoism, as most of his decisions clearly suggest that his primary concern is his own well-being and benefit. This is not to suggest that Trump never makes decisions which are primarily concerned with the benefit to others, just that more often his decisions are self-motivated.

The question I need to consider here, when trying to decide whether wearing a face mask is something I ought to do, is how wearing a face mask benefits (or does not benefit) myself and others. This can be established rather quickly with a simple analysis. If I wear a face mask, it benefits myself in that I gain a small amount of filtering of the air around myself when I breath, though unless I am wearing a specially fitted and designed face mask, the amount of personal protection I receive from the mask is quite limited. Having been wearing a face mask, I also have observed that I receive less of the particles from the air, such as pollen (I have hay fever), so there is that benefit as well. Unfortunately, wearing a face mask is uncomfortable, restricts my breathing (this is especially noticeable when I exert myself), and makes me hot in this summer weather. Thus, for me, it seems like whether I should wear a face mask depends on the particular situation I find myself in. If I am outside my home, it provides some benefits. If I am at home, it does not.

I must now consider the effects on others. If I wear a face mask, it benefits others by preventing most of the larger particles that are ejected from my mouth to spray out into the air around me. Droplets are caught by the mask, and generally absorbed by the cloth material of my mask. This is particularly noticeable when I sneeze or cough. I no longer need to find a free hand to cough into, which may be challenging while carrying bags of groceries. Furthermore, if I happen to be ill, my infection will not spread so easily, for the very reasons I have just described. Like the people I observed in Japan, the mask seems to provide significant benefits to those around me. And if I happen to be ill, but I am not aware of my illness (perhaps I am asymptomatic), wearing the mask will again benefit those around me.

There are a few detriments to others when I wear a face mask. My face tends to be fairly concealed when I wear a mask, such that others may not be able to easily identify me. If my identification is important to others, the mask reduces their likelihood of accurately identifying me. It is also harder for others to hear what I am saying. If I am talking to someone who is hard of hearing, and especially if that someone has learned to read lips to communicate, my mask will pose significant problems to our interactions.

It seems that it is unclear whether wearing a face mask is of benefit to others, and may require careful consideration of the situation I find myself in again. Like for myself, it seems like I ought to wear the mask when I am outside my home, but I can relax my mask wearing when I am at home. After all, when I am outside my home, I am not generally engaged in a lot of conversations, and I am not doing anything that really requires others to identify me. Of course, other people may find their particular situations quite different than mine, and so their personal assessment may end up quite different.

I began this blog thinking that this discussion would clearly suggest that face mask wearing was the correct choice, especially if considering others and not just myself. I was outraged by Trump when he refused to wear a face mask when visiting a face mask factory in Phoenix, even though the facility’s guidelines insisted it was the correct action to take. His arguments against wearing a mask, it seems to me, expressed an egoist viewpoint, and what seemed to me was a blatant disregard for others. However, after the brief discussion I have just posed, perhaps I am being a bit hard on Trump.

In the end, I still do believe it is in the best interests of others that I wear a face mask, especially outside my home. And I do believe a world view closer to empathism is important in our world. However, perhaps it isn’t as clear that these views are the correct views. Certainly not as clear as I had hoped. I will have to return to this line of thought in a later post.