Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man’s power to live long. Seneca

Sun rises, pink and red colors the sky. Great morning.

Epicurus argues that we should leave earth as free from care as we entered it.

Putting it shortly, we should not give a fuck about many things, in fact, no fucks at all.

But what does it mean to be free from care?

Seneca said as well that many men are slaves, but that many more hold fast to slavery. Especially in our times, we can see how everyone is working all the time to fulfill this “dreams”.

Think about yourself for a moment, think about your dream and your purpose? Is it to be a painter? A writer? A business person? Are you really doing it?

I believe the point is better illustrated in this manner:

why do we care so much about achieving money and leisure when we are going to die and in that moment we’ll realize how futile was the constant pursuit of riches?

I know, how is it that we are to live then? In the streets while pursuing our dreams?

I don’t think that not giving a fuck about anything is the correct manner of living and I don’t think that Epicurus meant that when he said we should leave life as careless as when we entered. What I think he meant is that we should not over complicate stuff.

What does it means to hold fast to slavery?

One time a professor of mine told me, that the moment you catch yourself saying “I have to do this” to put close attention, because in actuality, we don’t have to do anything. I guess this is true, but what happens if our children is sick? I mean we actually must take care of him.

So, we really don’t (actually) have to do anything, we just have to keep that in mind, but then, what is important to us? At least while we are here? Maybe taking care of our children? Maybe becoming a writer? It can be anything really and that is worth pursuing

There are traps in life. The trap of pursuing your parents dreams. The trap of being traditionally “successful” by society standards and many more things that are expected from us. Don’t you think that when we follow this things we are holding on to slavery? For fear of not belonging, of not doing what everybody else is doing? Don’t you think we care to much?

This is what carelessness means. We have to think for ourselves and do what only we know to do best.

David Gilmour loved music and we all know he definitely made his dream reality. But, when he was on his journey to become one of the members of Pink Floyd. One time, he got to the hospital with anemia because he hadn’t eaten anything in days.

It sounds easy to just leave everything and do what you want, but then doubt starts hitting the door. I don’t think that leaving everything is the right decision. But we are smart, so we should ask ourselves, what can we do to be where we want to be and we have to be even more smart to know where is it that we want to be, not anyone else.

This is a life lived nobly, if we live our lives truly, we make way for the others to live truly as well.

I want to end with the thought of completion. What is completion? Completion is thinking that there is going to come a time in our lives where we will be complete. With our house, with our wife, with our job and everything that society tells us is “the way”. But completion is not nature, incompletion is nature, the fight or the dance, during the time that we are alive, is never over. You care how long you live if you think that there is something that is going to make you complete like the dream you are sold, but you could die today you know? This is why caring to much about being complete does not matter. Being incomplete is enough, we can only live our lives nobly if we embrace this. We can only live if the moment if we embrace the fact that we are never going to be complete, so we should do the best with what we have right now. It’s not the goal what matters, it’s the process and the man that you become while living fully and nobly. This is the opposite of living lives of quiet desperation.