Thumotic living is not about "following your heart."
When we live from our thumos and fulfill the life-affirming desires of our heart, we follow no one. We follow no thing, including our heart. Rather we manifest in our actions the life-affirming desires of our heart.
It's a natural process. No exhortations like "Become who you are!" are needed. We do not have to try to become who we are.
When we live from our thumos, just as an acorn naturally becomes the unique oak tree it is meant to become, so we naturally become the unique human being we are meant to become.
This entry puts me in mind of something you wrote earlier. It has to do with the concept of eliminating the conditioning which my upbringing and culture has instilled in me. This post motivates me to ask a question about "bridges". As I or any one else becomes motivated to embrace thumotic living, I wonder about relinquishing old conditioning. It doesn't seem to me that its as easy as flipping a switch to embrace this direction. I wonder if the aphorism you mention above, or perhaps another, might be viewed as a "bridge" or reminder about the direction in which I'm trying to go?
ReplyDeleteLiving from spirit or thumos strikes me in some ways as radical for contemporary times. However, I also consider the possibility that this is how humans once lived upon the earth, and that in adopting this lifestyle, I would be returning to who and what humans once were.
Living from my thumos strikes me has having significantly different implications than the current attraction to mind and logical thinking.
I'm curious what you think about this?
Whoops, forgot the check the "Notify Me" box. . .I've yet to figure out how to know about replies without doing so.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'd say please do not get hung up on relinquishing former ways of behaving. Instead, I'd encourage you to become more aware of how you are already living thumotically. You already are. We can't help it. We do it naturally. Also, choose to enjoy the thumotic activities you already do: eating, drinking, sleeping, just being, enjoying beauty and pleasure, enjoying your creativity, relishing in life-affirming relationships, playing, etc. Thumotic living, which we do naturally, is more about doing what affirms life than trying to not do what doesn't. Please let me know if this helps. Thanks so much for commenting and helping me clarify how I describe thumotic living.
ReplyDeleteI very much like your view that I am already living thumotically because its what comes naturally to me. Yes, you mention many activities that I do every day and are embedded in my life which I might not have thought of as pieces of a thumotic life. Your explanation makes it feel like more of something I already know (and perhaps need to either recover or do more of) rather than something new I have to learn.
ReplyDeleteIt feels a little like peeling back layers.
I do think that conversations help in clarifying. Words can carry multiple meanings.