Category: health

Medium Well

“All things in moderation. Even moderation.” A wise saying. Living as an uncaring Buddhist saint, ignoring the world, has always struck me as early death. A few extremes add spice to existence .

There are complaints that today is different. We are buffeted by uncontrollable forces. Internet adds to higher highs, lower lows, rabbit holes, and destructive fantasies. It is impossible to be “moderate” in such an environment .

However, that is usually expressed by some of the most pampered people who ever lived. Warm, dry, well fed, with electricity and other comforts not imagined by those living a few centuries ago. The whining of such spoiled brats is very annoying .

Our ancestors faced genuine extremes every day, every year, almost all of them potentially fatal. There was never a better logical reason to “live well today for tomorrow we die.” Disease, disaster, hopeless fate. And yet – they kept an even keel. Mostly .

I’ve adopted a schizophrenic approach. For local matters over which I have control (eg eating, exercise) I continue the advice of “moderation”. For all that “media” hoopla I’m more like the monk, observing but fully dissociated. 

As I think of it, medium well done.

Tranquility

In our fortunate era, one can do many things, play many roles, in fact be different persons over time. We recognize standard stages of life – childhood, adolescence, young adult, middle-aged, senior, elder – and the various career changes one can make. But our very being can also transmute .

Tranquility is not a revered goal of our culture. It’s more important to be upset, to strive, to be unsatisfied with what is and work to change things for the better. For most of those stages of life, being tranquil is dangerously close to being a lazy good for nothing .

But elders _ well, little is expected at this declining energies and thoughts. Attempts by old folks to do great things is at best comical and at worst annoying and tragic. Tranquility fits those who otherwise get in the way of progress .

I confess to buying into this somewhat. Ever since I read  Innocents Abroad as a boy, I realized that younger people who accept life however awful it may be are more to be pitied than envied. I hardly ever sought tranquility, preferring even painful activity to doing nothing .

But now? I’m afraid I am still not quite tranquil, although I have slowed, appreciate the moments, and try not to regret all the many things I can no longer do. Such acceptance, I suppose, is close to tranquility. Or laziness, of course.