Dávilla once wrote that “wisdom, in this century, consists above all in knowing how to put up with vulgarity without becoming upset.” Considering how blatantly vulgar our current society is, it becomes rather difficult to even consider having Dávilla’s definition of wisdom. But, what exactly today is wise?

    There are two things that the people in the twenty-first century worship. Pleasure and success, and both have become so sought after that the experiencing these two things has become vulgar.

    It has been a while since I last looked at myself in the mirror properly. While I can safely say I lost a bit of weight, I seem to have grown eye bags to make up for it. And I find that I have not been taking good care of myself. I tend to sleep at three in the morning, even if I’ve been in bed since ten or eleven. Ultimately, I lack rest. The reasons behind my lack of proper rest could be any number of things, though internal troubles tend to be the worst cause of it. I would rather face a thousand real dangers unafraid than to facing matters of the heart and spirit.

    There are always small things that we keep to ourselves. The little thing that add up to make us unique and ourselves, and most people call those habits. Be it the way you think act feel, the way you sleep, the way you brush you teeth in the morning. All of these things make us unique. Behind all of this unique features lies the underlying principle of finding purpose.

  Every man should find for himself a legitimate purpose, and seek to accomplish it. It could be in a spiritual pursuit, where he seeks to know more about God, or something a bit more normal such as to become a good businessman, an excellent musician, a good cook or what have you. All his energies and talents must then be focused into this purpose to fulfill it.

    As he makes this legitimate purpose his ultimate goal in life, the little things will rise up and take action. These little things would add up into an entirely helpful or unhelpful set of character traits that could subtly help hinder this goal. To admit that such a weakness exists within ourselves, be it unhelpful in the form of laziness, lack of initiative, deluded fantasies, and vain imagination or helpful in the form of dedication, discipline and such, is a noble trait.

    And it is in the knowledge of this that we can make these our weaknesses disappear, not in a day, but through the course of practice and discipline in avoiding exercising these weak habits. For to control and defeat these unhelpful habits would be a step completed in accomplishing the ultimate goal that we have found.

    For those unfamiliar, aphorisms are original thoughts written or spoken that express a truth or a grain of wisdom in a very brief, often repeatable, form. These are similar to proverbs, or adages, but are quite recent. I found a small collection of my aphorisms, and decided to put some here for your enjoyment. These may or may not be applicable or make sense at all.