Break a Leg

Socrates said "The unexamined life is not worth living." He said this while on trial for heresy, for which he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

I'm not too sure what it means, though like many things in my life I haven't thought too much about it. Seems to me like he was kind of asking for it, considering his life was on the line, but without being there myself I can't say for sure that I wouldn't have said the same thing.

No, no, I can't really imagine myself ever saying anything like that.

I know some philosophers, real ones with degrees and published papers and everything. A good friend has a Ph.D. and teaches and stuff, and I met him while he was studying at the junior college level.

I know, partying with the philosophy major in junior college.

I think a lot of people think philosophy is all about arguments, and logic, and dissecting every word you say until you want to strangle someone. Well, it is, it really is, let me tell you. But if you haven't actually read or practiced philosophy, you're really missing out.

My friend the philosophy guy studies what's called ordinary language philosophy. That's where you say something totally normal like "I really like pizza", and then he explains why you're actually completely wrong. It's exhilarating.

If you're interested in philosophy and also interested in Batman (and statistically speaking, you are interested in Batman), then you could check out Batman and Philosophy. It starts off slow and a little easy, but I can pretty much guarantee that by the end of the book you won't have any idea what the hell anyone is talking about. That's how you know you're at a philosophy party.

Socrates may have had it right though. Examining your life is essential to living it to its fullest. How else would you know whether or not you're truly happy, besides the fact that you haven't stopped laughing for 45 minutes? I'm not sure I can claim to be living an examined life per se, though I think from time to time about examining my life. I'll need to look into what exactly is involved with examining a life, it seems a bit complicated.

The other issue I have with the examined life is when you find the time to live the life you're examining?

I may have settled on the solution, but it requires some support from the outside. I think I need to hire someone to examine my life. See, they can ask questions, debate, discourse, challenge authority, etc., then break it all down for me in a nice digest format each evening so I know what I've been examining all day. Something simple and direct, all on one page like a resume, with a nice heading and bulleted lists.

This requires money, but unfortunately so do my wife and child. Yuri's started asking strange questions too while he and Vlad are working on scripts, like "How badly do you want to be in this next episode?" or "Do you know how much money printer paper costs?" So then there's that expense I'll need to absorb, though at least I think I can write it off at the end of the year.

I'll have to table this project for now, there's a Primetime special on right now about "Family Secrets". If I can't examine my life I can at least examine the lives of cold-blooded killers.