” How have you been?”
“Alright I guess.”
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
―
(As the young philosophy student is taking off his coat…)
“What’s with the tone in your voice? Sounding a little subdued today.”
(As the coat is being draped over the back of a chair…)
“Classes are really making me think.”
“Well… they are philosophy classes so isn’t that the goal?”
(As the chair is slowly drawn backward, making room to sit at the table…)
“Yeah, but not just thinking about learning the basic stuff like, “Who is Socrates?” I mean like his statements are making me really look at myself and try to understand what I think I know and believe.”
“I was just about to grab coffee and some fresh banana bread… you want in? Ok.”
(After pouring the coffee, the butter is placed into the microwave for melting, to be spread on the banana bread, warm.)
“So what do you think is the crux of your current thought wrestling match?”
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“We didn’t finish that last time did we. We discussed ‘the unexamined’ portion and had to leave the ‘not worth living’ portion for today, where is your mind at with it?”
“Well I think, after studying him, I understand what he was saying as it applied to himself. If he couldn’t pursue his philosophy of life, searching for answers logically, examining every facet of his inner being and being denied that by exile… then I see why he would say, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He would certainly choose death, and the opportunity to continue the search for eternity, over an earthly experience of NOT being able to do so.”
“Wow. That’s good. So what are you not able to reconcile about his statement?”
“Well, it may sound silly. But the word… ‘worth,’ what is anything worth? Who decides? Why do we consider some things “more worthy” than others? Who places the value on something of worth? Why when we look into ourselves do we have to understand our self worth?”
“First things first… right? The stress you are feeling in your mind is because your mind is growing in understanding, it is trying to stretch itself to meet this new information from Socrates and is now turning that information inward. And like fertilizer on a rose bush it is causing your brain to flourish and reach out to the sunshine of knowledge and freedom of thought. You can recognize the stress but are unable to recognize that it is a positive stress. That is something strange about our human mind… it doesn’t recognize good or bad stress it only recognizes it as STRESS, period. The word worth, is a doozy.”
Let’s look at the word ‘worth’ for a minute.
Phrase: “What’s it worth… to you?” “One mans junk is another mans treasure.”
Another word associated with ‘worth’: value, “What’s the value in it?” “What is intrinsic value?”
“What? Intrinsic value. What is the one, main, inner thing that gives a thing it’s value? For example: a 4×4 pickup truck. The 4×4 trans-axle allows all four wheels to rotate at the same time. So the intrinsic value of a 4×4 pickup truck is… the 4×4 capability. That is where the money is.
So for Socrates being unable to ‘examine’ his life held no ‘value’ for him, it wasn’t worth it to live it. He placed that value on it. As we all do everyday. Is it worth it? Is it worth it to examine ourselves? I believe so.
Where does that leave you? What do you value? Who do you value? Do you feel your examined life is worth living? What value have you placed on your self-worth?”
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