How Philosophy Gets In
It crawls in and you develop a taste for it. When it settles, you have a new thinking muscle, curiosity can reach more, and it finally starts to arrive in new places and find the strangest of things. These are new outlooks and perspectives, what was always there becomes different. First, it’s hard to look away from the old tired views you have. The first taste for me was Epicurus. You lose a virginity with your first love reading philosophy. I would’ve taken Epicurus to the alter and married his ideas. He had me thinking I could pet myself, treat my mind like my dog, train it.
You know when the worm crawls in..
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Don’t try to fight it, the trick is to apply it. After losing my virginity and allowing the worm to penetrate I became promiscuous. The first new philosophic outlook turned into a diversity of viewpoints. Still I remember the first love. The Epicurus approach is to take life on simple terms. We might admit our ability to live on only that which is essential? However, At the same time aren’t we aware of how we are entertained by distractions? Some might understand the method as training a man to be satisfied staring at the wall. This was how philosophy got in, by challenging my thought process. Once the worm has attached itself,
…you find there is a sport to thinking.. it’s a mystery that hides from idiots. You could never judge a philosophy book by it’s cover, their Authors give no clever titles. Epicurus didn’t write down his ideas, they were inherited from spoken word to listening ear.
This is caused by the effort involved, drawing a conclusion is work. Thinking with the crowd takes you with the current of all thought. When you lack in ideas you have to settle for multiple choice, a given answer, there might not be a thing wrong with it. Going against a current will not feel comfortable. Critical thinking hurts at first, you feel the worm crawling through a thousand previously processed thoughts. When it comes in handy and gets you out of a scrape it gains in value. Are you interested in mysteries? Will you let the worm seduce you, can it come inside?
