I woke up at 5 AM today, I got to work at 7. I was talking to a coworker about food, when I told him I didn’t buy salt, he gave me some great advice on how to cook. For now I’m just surviving and I’m okay with eating sub par food. I forgot to put chicken in my salad, so I was just tired.
Anyway, home time rolls around, and I just wanted to go home and sleep, but I saw this guy, and I started talking to him about life. Complete random, we were talking about books, he was reading a book by Anne Rice about this person who had God and the Devil on each shoulder, trying to win them over. I was reading Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, and we got to talk about books and what he had done for work. It was really fun. The point is, I swear I have a different energy bank for talking to people, I believe that I really have to leverage this disposition to my benefit, because talking to people for others is hard.
Even books to a degree, feel like I’m having a one way conversation, much like you are now. I feel like that’s why I like it so much, especially if it is a framework of thought.
Nicomachean Ethics : A book by Aristotle, examining the how to live a good life. It’s pretty dense but I have the illusion of understanding around 60% of what he says. I like the idea of the means of virtue.
A good person, is someone that “acts in the right way, at the right time, for the right reason, and in the right manner.”
So It defines virtue as being in between two extremes, for example the virtue of courage is between cowardice and rashness. In this way virtue is just the right amount, not too much or not too little, the book also brought in the visual of a circle. It is easy to hit the circle at all sides, but to strike it at its core is most difficult.
One key thing that it discusses is that not all character traits exhibit the doctrine of the mean, for example malice in any amount does not lead to virtue.
In Malayalam there is a saying "അധികം ആയാൽ അമൃതം വരെ വിഷം" (Adhikam āyāl amṛtam vare viṣam) in Malayalam translates roughly to:
"Even nectar becomes poison if taken in excess.
Honestly I have no clue if the correct translation is nectar, but I remember my grandma used to say this, and It’s cool that we were all on the same wavelength back in the day. I remember her saying its a healing drug so maybe it should be
"Even healing potion becomes poison if taken in excess
Edit
The nectar in question is believed to be food of angels according to Hindu mythology. Meaning, even if it's something that gives you immortality, consuming/usage of it in excess would be poisonous or bring death or destruction.
- Samson’s Dad