“When you need encouragement, think of the qualities people around you have: this one’s energy, that one’s modesty, another’s generosity, and so on. Nothing is more encouraging, as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we’re practically showered with them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Let’s acknowledge the virtue, talents, and beauty of others. As we do we are reminded of the goodness in the world. Our cynical and competitive culture seeks to convince us that all goodness is hypocrisy, all virtue is masked vice, and love is really just self-interest. It’s not true. Yes, there is weakness and imperfection in all of us, there is also strength and virtue. Today as we observe our world and our divine sisters and brothers let’s brighten our day by focusing first on their encouraging qualities.
The Philosophy of Motherhood 
“Our cynical and competitive culture seeks to convince us that all goodness is hypocrisy, all virtue is masked vice, and love is really just self-interest.”
You pegged me, there. I’m going to think on this and try to change my mindset.
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Beautiful, thank you!
My parents were very passionate and serious people who took virtue seriously (they had a sense of humour too). My dad in particular, who lived though war, occupation and cultural instability (the Nazis in Greece and the challenges that came after) credited the virtue and solidarity of his family with saving his life.
Their perspective and stories had a lasting impact, for sure, but as I grew up I inevitably looked outside my family for guidance how to live in the world: I had to contend with it, after all. Among my friend group cynicism and worldliness and irony was more common. This is not to say my friends and I were without any goodness: they were and are in many ways lovely people doing mostly the right things. But it’s like we didn’t take virtue seriously: you may do the right thing, but you don’t strive toward it: everything is supposed to be relative, after all. It is (I see in hindsight) an awfully confused way of looking at the world. I’m still trying to negotiate a way out of.
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Such a beautiful lesson that fits in one shareable screenshot. Thank you for always inspiring me 🙂
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