IF VIRTUE IS WHAT WE SEEK

Whether an idea is valuable or corrosive, the ideas that require least effort are those that erode individual well being. By extension, the ideas we take in shape the communities in which we live. We don't dress to make ourselves virtuous. We don't rub shoulders with celebrity thinking that will render us meritorius. Isn't it a shame we can't talk about why science and art were our dutiful core studies? While both rest on individuals asking impossible, unimaginable questions our cirriculum will require courses that bring us to a state of curiousity that always  penetrates what is familiar in a sense, replacing what is, with what could be. How we employ that idea rest in your hands, knowing your innovations cannot be arrested. Does this not tell us creativity requires conviction for validation?  And does it not tell us the world will be impacted?  What if rather than pulling out self-defeating thoughts, it were accompanied by the realization your notions could also open doors to further understanding?  While all this might be plausible, none of it matters until a man grasps the meaning of being judged by merit- in his own mind and prepared to face the 'vacissitudes of the market place' where, at his most vulnerable he will learn to cope with his critics. I'm not inclined to think that a virtuous life is a life detached from reality; ignore what you don't like. Embracing it all for what is says and what it is- that requires patience. The anxiety is made into excitement. It is the anxiety that allows the soprano to perform and glory in the audience reaction; the poet to reveal the soul of living, unlocking the human condition.  Even attempting to live a virtuous life is an approximation. When is the effort done? Will it all be a bowl of cherries?  Will the heavens sing our praise? Or will we find that objective, evasive satisfaction?