Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Moderation and Knowing Yourself

Moderation and knowing yourself, leads to Self Actualization

We indulge ourselves in too much of the things that feel good. Contentment does not require that we go to excess but like teenagers we find that if one beer gives us a bit of a buzz, than a six-pack will surely be a harbinger of euphoria. Experience teaches that this isn’t true, however, there is no natural mechanism for controlling our insatiable need for pleasure.

All we have is our will and the ability to discipline ourselves to a path of moderation. How hard is that…? Well it’s very hard indeed. As I tell my students, humans are driven by wants, needs and desires and the stronger the compulsion, the more certain you can be.... that too much is a bad thing.

We need to learn when enough is enough. When we acquire this understanding we will know why the Greeks chose these two adages to write over their Oracle at Delphi… “Know Yourself” and “All things in moderation.”

Now the Greeks figured this out and who can say the extent to which the “Mysteries” which were an unrecorded part of their religious beliefs emphasizes these points. We do know that the Greeks struggled with these two issues and were notoriously deficient, for all their wisdom, in these two regards.

When I shadow take the Exploratory Writing Workshop I think this will be my Dramatic Premise.