Recently, I have centered my life around one key concept: industry. It’s the ideas Benjamin Franklin laid before me, and I have taken a liking to them. That industriousness means I take no part in useless and inconsequential matters if I can help it. When you take on such a goal, you start to look at the world with a renewed pair of eyes. It’s like putting on glasses when you have poor eyesight. Everything sharpens up and focuses in with a new clarity.
What does it really mean to serve humanity? It means to do things that society will find useful whether it’s cleaning a hospital or playing music to pleasure the ears of those around me. All these things are useful. Where we go wrong is when we see them as work instead of as serving humanity.
Whatever I do, I have decided, I want it to have a purpose. For that reason, I have had to cut some things from my life while thinking of creative ways to make other things useful or meaningful. Nothing I do should have the stale odor of directionless hobbies—I have done enough of those.
When it comes to my own personal education, I have decided to hone in on the more practical side of things. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with knowing 14th century Italy was a collection of city-states, and mercenaries were a hated but necessary evil to the survival of each state. However, how are we going to make such knowledge useful? Admittedly, it’s bloody hard. I have not figured out how to do it yet, other than it’s a good story, and it’s the story of mankind. Still, in the coming year, I want to become a more practical learner and especially focus my learning efforts on practical affairs.
What About Fiction?
A practical education doesn’t mean I’ll be cutting out fictional novels or even stop learning about history. The ultimate goal behind industriousness is greater happiness for myself and bringing something of real value to serve humanity. However, I’m going to watch how much time I spend doing it, and get a whole lot more creative in how I make these things meaningful to my life. For example, I’ve been reading the Wheel of Time series since I first got to Nicaragua (I’m on book 3).
How will I make such a series useful to my life? First, I will use the story as inspiration for my own fictional novel Scarlet Sword, which I have been writing on and off for four years—doesn’t seem possible, but I haven’t worked hard at it. I will write detailed essays about the complex relationships within the story, and how the ideas might one day come up with my characters in Scarlet Sword.
Answer a question
With each reading, I might have a question, be it psychological, plot-based or otherwise where I try to come up with a viable answer and tailor an essay around it. For example, in Wheel of Time, I might talk about the friendship of the three main character, Rand Al’Thor, Matrim Cauthon and Perrin Aybara. I will answer it in essay form.
I might also explore the psychological makeup of each character and learn the lessons of each character. The goal is to either make it useful or make it deeply meaningful, and I think this is one of the ways that I can get away with doing it for fiction. In everything I do, however, my goal is to set a purpose to make it useful. Each interaction and everything I do, my goal will always be to either serve or create the circumstances where I could serve in the future.