Uncloistered

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  “She gazed ahead through a long reach of future days strung together like pearls in a rosary, every one like the others, and all smooth and flawless and innocent, and her heart went up in thankfulness. Outside was the fervid summer afternoon; the air was filled with the sounds of the busy harvest of men and birds and bees; there were halloos, metallic clatterings, sweet calls, and long hummings. Louisa sat, prayerfully numbering her days, like an uncloistered nun.” A New England Nun By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930)

Finished Reading

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  • Judges (Old Testament)
  • Book 1 in Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics”

Sophocles’ last line of “Oedipus The King” is “we must call no one happy who is of mortal race until he has crossed life‘s border free from pain.” Where Sophocles (497-406 BC) ends, Aristotle  (384-322 BC) begins, searching the subject of happiness in “Ethica Nicomachea.” His exploration asks if happiness is the result of what we do, or of who we are? Is happiness the result of having a good time or from living a good life? Is happiness dependent on goods (circumstantial) or self-sufficient in what is good (contentment)? Is happiness an activity or a state of being? The philosopher reasoned that virtuous completion determines happiness and is only measured at the end of life. 

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