Yah OK, But

On the road to Titanic, Sask. 2013

 A Picture just because.  That was a wet summer, in fact, the wettest in living memory of everyone around Titanic that day.















From
http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/2015/03/14/on-stoic-and-danish-happiness-by-tue-sovso

"thus basically thought of human beings as rational animals, which therefore, just like other animals, have an instinct for self-preservation and care for their offspring. Their share in reason, however, sets them apart from other animals and lets them develop a thirst for knowledge as well as a far more sophisticated sociability than any other animal species. According to the Stoics, and all their contemporary philosophers, the key to happiness was to live in accordance with this nature. This means that whereas animals reach their goal in life just by preserving the existence of themselves and their offspring, humans have to go further than that."

Animals who`s brain became conscious. OK. Along comes Musonius Rufus with his "nature has set us the goal of living a flourishing life."  And "consciousness is a chip of divinity. We should honor that, and use it as intended."

Rising to our highest potential in our time and culture is all fine and good. "Wishing for things to happen as they do" leaves us free of any responsibility for the past, and we are free to live with "that which is within our power." Knowing that we have the power of "assent, withholding judgement, or rejection; desire, apathy, or aversion; and impulse, indifference, repulsion" along with the animal fight, flight and freeze responses, we are equipped to make our way in the world. I, the directing mind I, has no control, so the directing mind I should have gratitude for each breath the animal I draws. I, the directing mind, is dependent on the animal I. A natural cyborg sort of concept. Rap your mind around that one, if you can.

The ability to understand concepts, and then accept, defer them, or reject them makes me responsible for my beliefs. That is a big one. This is also the explanation, or description to or answer to the wisdom in the serenity prayer, if you like. We are natural cyborgs, dependent on our animal bodies, gratitude should be the order of the day. OK. Enough.