Socrates once said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." He would rather have died then give up philosophy...and he did die. He was executed for believing and teaching the truth. The truth he only discovered by examining himself. By taking the time to think about who he was, where he was, and what he was doing before it was too late.
Do you do that? Do you stop and think for a minute that while you are in the rat race of life, looking for the next shiny new product you may be missing out on? Your life is too busy and you are in this routine that won't let you breathe.
I've always have this feeling that I've been missing something. I sometimes refer to it as a hunger, or a quench for knowledge. Other times, it's just that I'm never satisfied. Often, when examining things through conversations or meaningful dialogue it will hit me what it is I am missing. The fact is, I am not missing anything. It's all right in front of me for the taking. I own it.
The problem lies with not accepting it, realizing it, or noticing it because I've put myself in situations that doesn't reveal those things.
The purpose of life is to grow spiritually and personally. We can't obtain those things unless we take the time to examine our lives. Santayana said, "He who does not remember the past is condemned to repeat it". I think we all know that. But we do we really apply it?
It's like the alcoholic who always has to sneak alcohol into his beverage. He knows through repetition how bad it is, yet still hasn't learned how to fix it. There's a different between knowing and learning. I know I eat food too fast (because I don't think about food when I'm eating), but I haven't learned to slow down. I haven't examined it to be aware of the real truth. I haven't learned, thus I'm repeating history.
You may know who you are, but have you learned who you are?
Felipe Alou
