Character

The notion of one’s character feels a little too scholastic for me; a bit of a contrived ‘armchair analysis’ of a person who is hardly accurately described in terms of vague words like ‘brave’, ‘determined’, or the worst: ‘hard-working’. As if these words are of any meaning in an of themselves about someone who may only exhibit said qualities under very curated cirumstances.

However, I do feel there is an intuitive concept of one’s character best seen as the proverbial distance between their philosophical ideals and their actions. Different even from the words they use to describe their ideals, but the ideals themselves juxtaposed with their corresponding actions. Even moreso than what they may make clear as their philosophical convictions are what they choose to omit in this regard and act in the absence of any philosophical disposition; for this dimension of this ‘character’ notion is most telling.

So while I don’t detest any notion of practical living that one might conjure up for themselves: owning a house, assets, family, career, etc. I do find their notions of what ideals they sacrifice, the awareness of said sacrifice, and most importantly what is forgotten as sacrificial in the first place. The lines that we blur in our everyday decisions with our ideals make us into ‘us’ - for better or for worse.

The true philosopher muses and lives no differently; while a truly malevolent life is one lived without musing at all.