Summary

The author discusses the importance of collective understanding and cooperation in achieving elegance, wisdom, and a better quality of life, while also emphasizing the value of rest and leisure in maintaining mental and physical well-being.

Abstract

The author reflects on personal style and the unimportance of individual humans compared to the collective pursuit of understanding the cosmos. They touch upon the evolution of human knowledge, from recognizing which berries are poisonous to landing on the moon, and the role of systems of communication and cooperation in these achievements. The text emphasizes the pursuit of wisdom and the importance of working towards the benefit of all, rather than seeking individual fame. The author also acknowledges the necessity of rest and leisure, suggesting that activities like dreaming, enjoying nature, and engaging in fantasy serve a serious purpose in maintaining overall well-being and mental acuity.

Opinions

The author believes that individual humans, including themselves, are not inherently important, but can be inspiring.
True elegance is found in the understanding of the cosmos and the simple truths of geometry, algebra, and calculus, rather than in personal attire or speech.
Collective understanding and cooperation are crucial for arranging things to ensure happiness and prevent suffering.
The pursuit of wisdom and helping others for the collective good is more important than individual fame, such as being an Instagram influencer.
Rest and leisure, including dreaming, enjoying nature, and engaging in fantasy, are essential for long-term diligence and mental health.
The author writes amusing stories and engages in leisure activities for a serious purpose, to provide rest and mental rejuven

Self

Being Silly is Serious Business

Elegance and Pleasure and Wisdom: three sides of the one coin

In response to prompts from some writers, I attempted to define my personal non-elegance, posting a picture of myself in clothes that were practical rather than eye-catching, and about as poised as I get in my personal style, which leans far more toward comfort than glamour.

Chris Fox Gilson — that rare creature: a writer who speaks but doesn’t write — left an insightful comment on my photo and accompanying haiku. Being three in the morning here in Melbourne, my mind was fresh and free and I wrote in response.

Eight billion people all at once* by Martijn Baudoin on Unsplash

I believe that the body, and indeed even the mind, is not that important. There’s eight billion of us. Nobody can possibly know everything about everyone and everything. If I think someone is an inspiring model, the reality is that there are going to be millions who are likewise inspiring, some in radically different ways. So I don’t see individual humans — including myself — as all that important. Inspiring, possibly.

What is truly important is bigger than any one of us, and throughout our evolution we have sought to understand how the cosmos is put together. Why some berries cheer you up, and some kill you, and when we look into that we find chemistry and biology and medicine and after a while not as many are dying and we are living better and more pleasant lives.

People look up into the sky and after many headaches we work out that the earth is a ball, it is not the centre of the universe, there are immense structures in the sky, gravity and light flow between them, and the little bits we can personally perceive are infinitesimal fragments of a greater whole.

We learn how to work together to defend ourselves against predators, gather food, plant crops, build cities, and before long we have the pyramids and can get to the moon. Not so much the deeds themselves, but the systems of communication and cooperation that enable us to do these things without creating wars or starving or ruining the planet. Got to work on that last point a bit more yet, obviously.

Together we do amazing things and we comprehend the cosmos.

My vision of grace and elegance is akin to that of the Ancient Greeks who gave us geometry, or the Islamic scientists who discovered the ways of algebra, or those who deduced how calculus works. These simple truths are elegance far more than any set of clothes or manner of speech.

And when we collectively understand how it all fits together, then we can arrange things in the best possible fashion so that everybody is happy, nobody suffers, each one of us is the best we can be.

That’s my philosophy, that’s my love of wisdom, and I see it shared by so many. Recognising and helping these people who understand and work for the benefit of all is what is important, rather than being an Instagram influencer or whatever.

Inactive Shooter by Jessica F on Unsplash

As for my stories of fun and travel and entertainment, well, we can’t be serious all the time, now can we? In between our waking day and our deep sleep we have the realm of dreams where we enjoy things that aren’t necessarily real.

The land of fantasy and magic is one we enter every night — and often during the day when we could be performing productive work or study. We all go there, and the reason we do so is not for short term fun, but for long term diligence.

We need to rest our eyes from peering at books or computer screens by regarding distant vistas of green hills and forests and lakes, and we need to untense our muscles by standing up and going for a walk every now and then, and we need to unclench our minds by reading some silly story, or watching some escapist movie.

The subconscious mind will continue to chew over whatever problems we have while we are enjoying ourselves laughing and drinking with friends at dinner, chewing on the food our bodies need.

All in measure and moderation, of course.

So if I write amusing stories about flights of fantasy it’s for a serious purpose, okay?

Britni

*There may be fewer than eight billion people in the photograph at the top of this story. Obviously the photographer is not in the shot, so there is one missing right away. I am in there as well, sitting by the window of my favourite Starbucks in all the world, looking out over that iconic crossing at Shibuya and enjoying the Japanese corporate idea of a flat white.