What I Do and Don't Do

I had a killer idea for a topic the other day...  Now, what was it??

I remember I once did the topic, What is the value of marriage in modern society?  I had intended to examine the phenomena of modern marriage:  serial monogamy but not actual lifetime fidelity, shared child rearing by separated parents, delayed marriage, DINK's, domestic partnerships, same sex marriages, etc.  The topic was well received by the participants, but it turned into a sort of marriage counseling session.  There was lots of TMI sharing, which was not all that great, actually.  It soured me on domestic topics and I haven't been back to that quicksand quagmire since, but maybe hope springs eternal...

The topic I had for this week was one having to do with kids and child rearing.  What was it?

Other topics I totally avoid:

• Addictions of various kinds (remember George DuWors?  He made a career of this one.)
• Politics, esp. with respect to local politics
• Relationships in general - are these Big Questions issues?
• Zombies (unless it is in the service of BQ topics like consciousness, minds and brains, etc.)

Socrates asked What is.. questions.  What is virtue?  What is duty?  What is knowledge?  We should ask these sorts of questions about our own lives.   What is our responsibility to our do-nothing teen-age kids who are addicted to the internet and their smart phones?  (Oops, I said I would not do addictions!)  What is the best strategy for planning our retirement?  What is retirement, for that matter?  What is ..  what?  What is the What is Question that is most troubling to you, my BQ readers and attendees?

What is the value of BQ after so many years of meeting?  I see this as a fair question.  We've done the Pleasure Box Question in so many ways.  And the Meaning of Life.  And the Purpose of our Lives.  Is there room for one more?  As we transit the timeline that is our lives, is the process of introspection that BQ attempts to facilitate still relevant?  Is Socrate's Examined Life still a worthy objective?

There, that is our question!  The Examined Life!  I've long extolled that the Process of Examination is the objective, not the destination of living the examined life.  That we gather, that we discuss, that we question and probe is enough.  It is that we ask the questions that makes it enough.  That Big Questions exists is enough, and that we gather to ask and wrestle to answer the questions is enough.

What is the Examined Life, and why should we give a shit?

THAT is the QUESTION!