Thought About Your Life Recently?

As we dig back into the Big Questions of the past, or should I say, the BQ's this extended discussion group has considered in the past, I am reminded of Heraclitus' claim that you never dip your toe into the same river twice.  Putting this into context, this means that even though we may discuss any particular topic again, the group is different, the points of view individuals in the group bring to the discussion are different, and our aged (or evolved) perspectives can put us into a new frame of mind with respect to a topic.

Starting on page 38 of Socrates Cafe, Christopher Phillips is quizzed about why he started the group in the first place, to which he answers, "An unexamined life is not worth living", a classic Socratic quote.  The group of strangers he is meeting with that night take up the thread of this idea, and expand it in many ways.  One woman is said to have complained that an adult life of working with psychotherapists has done nothing to add to her sense of self.  She says that all this self examination has not given her a feeling that she is living a better life today, because of it.

A man says that just to examine a person's life is not the point, but rather to examine it from a philosophical perspective, and he proposes that the question "Who am I" is really the point.  Another says that looking back on your life is pointless, as you only see where you were and what you did.  that only leads to regret,  Looking at how to best live the moment of the now, and maybe with some forward looking is the important thing.  Another says looking back provides guidance for how you should live in the future, and not just to wallow in regret or self-recriminations.  

From there the discussion moves into the importance of life's examination from Phillips' perspective, and how starting these discussion groups is a way he is using to bring meaning to his life.  Until he started doing Socrates Cafe meetings he was adrift in life, and it all felt so very meaningless.  He shares this with his group, and they react with support and bemusement.  

Please come with some ideas about how examining our lives individually can help us, and those around us.  A favorite and possibly unattributable quote I like is, If we are all here in the world to help others, what are the others here for?  Our efforts in BQ are an exercise in helping others, surely.