The Chautauqua

“He returned to his Midwest, picked up a practical degree in journalism, married, lived in Nevada and Mexico, did odd jobs, worked as a journalist, a science writer, and an industrial-advertising writer. He fathered two children, bought a farm and a riding horse and two cars and was starting to put on middle-aged weight. His pursuit of what has been called the ghost of reason had been given up. That’s extremely important to understand. He had given up.”

The above is an excerpt from Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Rober M. Pirsig. The quote sums up the life of Phaedrus after giving up his quest for reason. I know many people who are perfectly content with living the life described above, but I don’t think I could ever be. It’s too dull and uninspired. Motionless. A means to an end. We fill each void with simple pleasures to hold our attention for a short while in order to distract us from the real beauty around us. I am definitely guilty of temporarily putting aside reason to focus on social media, material possessions, artificial love, and the like, but seem to always come back as I inherently know that that is what matters most. I believe it makes you stronger as a person to continue to search for meaning and connect the dots even if you never find the end. As long as clarity and deep understanding come out of that search I know I have gained something meaningful.

A few pages later the narrator explains to the people around him the importance of maintaining peace of mind and the amount of control we have to create or hinder it:

“ ‘Peace of mind isn’t at all superficial, really,’ I expound. ‘It’s the whole thing. That which produces it is good maintenance; that which disturbs it is poor maintenance. What we call workability of the machine is just an objectification of this peace of mind. The ultimate test’s always your own serenity. If you don’t have this when you start and maintain it while you’re working you’re likely to build your personal problems right into the machine itself.’ “

I think what he is trying to explain here and throughout the book is that we must continuously reflect and fine-tune our minds so that we have favourable and healthy outcomes in life. If we fall into non-self-reflection we tend to sink into bad habits and the drabness of routine, as it still maintains neutral results. We forget to think about ourselves and also the impact we have on others as well as the world around us. At the end of the day, it is all the more exciting to search within yourself. The narrator points out:

“…Mental reflection is so much more interesting than TV it’s a shame more people don’t switch over to it. They probably think what they hear is unimportant but it never is.”

It’s easy to continuously absorb information from the world around us without ever reflecting, creating, and learning from that information. It’s a shame because there is so much that can come from a stroll, a car ride, or reading that we would otherwise find “unimportant”. I feel as though I’ve always been hyperaware of the world around me but more recently have decided to try to learn from the seemingly “unimportant”. I think the more you focus the easier it is to find major connections that will ignite creativity and excitement in your life. We are hardwired to dismiss an idea right away because it doesn’t fit our ideals or beliefs but I think it’s important to read into those ideas because we’ll always be better off knowing why the other side thinks the way they do. You can still hold on to your ideal and your beliefs as long as you’ve exhausted all other alternatives after having explored them.

I hope my thirst for reason never ceases because then I will know that I have truly given up…