{"id":24848,"date":"2015-09-04T06:13:53","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T13:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=24848"},"modified":"2015-09-10T05:47:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T12:47:31","slug":"having-no-choices-is-the-ultimate-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/04\/having-no-choices-is-the-ultimate-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Having No Choices is the Ultimate Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NYC,
NYC, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dear friend,<\/p>\n

I want to tell you the exciting start of my day today. I want to share with you as vividly how it felt, and what is on my mind.<\/p>\n

I woke up, still feeling a bit drowsy, yet felt alert. I looked around my surroundings. I was in bed, lying next to the love of my life (Cindy). I was a bit hot, and for some strange reason, my body woke up at this natural time. I knew it was probably really early (some ungodly hour), but the first thing that came to my mind was this:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thank you God for giving me another day of life, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect this, but this is a bonus. I will use this day as faithfully as I can, to the best of my abilities, because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if I will wake up the next day, and when I will die.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure why I woke up with this strange sense of gratitude. I think I do now, but will get to that in a second (after taking another sip of this lovely espresso I made).<\/p>\n

Anyways, the first thing I do is jump in the shower, and blast it on cold (best way to wake up in the morning). I brush my teeth, go to the living room (on my tippy-toes because I know my neighborhood downstairs is sleeping, did some brief yoga stretches (God I feel like an old and achy old man), put on some clothes, put on some hair wax (makes me feel more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153legit\u00e2\u20ac\u009d before writing).<\/p>\n

I look at the clock on my kitchen stove, and it reads:<\/p>\n

3:00am<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh man, it’s pretty early, but\u00c2\u00a0I feel pumped and ready for today.<\/p>\n

I just made myself an espresso, and sat down on my kitchen table, with my iPad setup with my keyboard (I just gave away my Windows 8 Laptop to a charity, a friend named Anne runs an organization that teaches programming to underprivileged children, so I have no more laptop), and wanted to share some thoughts with you.<\/p>\n

Being alive fucking rocks<\/h2>\n

Well first of all, I wanted to share with you how fucking awesome it is to be alive, and no matter how much we bitch and moan about our lives, we are blessed.<\/p>\n

I have a really good friend named Glen Goh, who lives in Vancouver. He did one of my workshops with Adam Marelli in Venice\/Verona a few years back, and we have become good friends since then. He is a devout Catholic, loving husband, loving father, keen and passionate photographer, and overall great human being. He is quite well-off, but he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t flaunt his wealth, and is very frugal, humble, and knows his values and principles.<\/p>\n

Anyways, the other day Cindy and I got a very kind email from him. Dr. Morgan, a professor of philosophy that he would take to mass every Sunday, just passed away. We briefly met him when we visited Glen and his wife Sharon in Vancouver. Father Morgan was over 80 years old, lived in an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153old person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, was a distinguished professor in Philosophy, and still had fire in his eyes. Even though he was old and frail, he still refused to use a wheelchair, and would try to walk everywhere he could. He was full of energy, gratitude, and humor. Also as a side note, I told him about my love of Stoicism and studying the ancient Greek\/Roman philosophers. Dr. Morgan recommended me reading Thomas Aquinas, who I plan on reading.<\/p>\n

But anyways, Cindy told me the news of Dr. Morgan dying right before I slept, so perhaps that is why I suddenly woke up today, full of gratitude, and ready to live my life.<\/p>\n

You only live once<\/h2>\n

To be honest, I have no idea when I am going to die. I think about death a lot, especially as someone who is only 27 years old. I honestly at the moment don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if I believe in an afterlife (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still a practicing Catholic, although not a very good one), but I try to live my life according to the life and teachings of Jesus, to the wisdom of the sages of Stoicism, and even the wise words of Laozi and the Taoist sages.<\/p>\n

But regardless of what your background, nationality, religion, personal spiritual beliefs\u00e2\u20ac\u201c whatever; know that life is a gift that is to be cherished, and to be appreciated. We are only given one life on this earth, albeit short. Why not use the best of it while we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t here?<\/p>\n

The secret of happiness: the avoidance of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unhappiness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/h2>\n

Friend, I think at the end of the day, we all want to be happy. So I want to share some of my meditations on happiness and making the best of your life while we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still alive on this little green planet.<\/p>\n

First of all, I am starting to believe that happiness isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pursuit of happiness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but the avoidance of unhappiness<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What do I mean by that?<\/p>\n

Well, according to the Epicurean school of philosophy, the philosopher (Epicurus) said that pleasure was the key to happiness. But not the hedonistic type of pleasure where all you are is having sex, eating good food, participating in orgies, getting drunk and fucked up, and whatever. No, it is avoiding pain (mental pain, and physical pain). And he makes a good point; that we know whether something is really necessary or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in our life, whether we feel pain in the absence of it.<\/p>\n

For example, according to Epicurus, the only 3 main things which cause true pain (which we would die without) is food, water, and freedom from the cold. We feel pain when we are hungry, we feel pain when we are thirsty, and we feel pain when we are cold.<\/p>\n

But the funny thing is that these are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nature\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wants\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201c and they are very subtle and easy to achieve. We live in a society of affluence, where food is cheap and attainable. We have access to clean drinking water (if you want to appreciate water more, watch “Mad Max: Fury Road). We have access to warm clothing (and to those of us who live in warm climates like California, you can survive without a jacket, unlike my friends in Sweden).<\/p>\n

But there are all these superfluous things that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/em> need in life, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel physical pain in the absence of them. This includes having a lot of money (not having a lot of money doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give us physical pain, unless it leads to hunger, thirst, or pain from the cold), this includes driving a fancy car (if you \u00e2\u20ac\u02dconly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 drive a Honda Civic and not a BMW, you are not in physical pain, only perhaps jealous), this includes fame and fortune (you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel physical pain if you have 0 followers on Instagram), and many more things.<\/p>\n

Let me continue to hash out thoughts, because this is the best way I can communicate, thank you for bearing with me friend (I know my grammar is horrible, I think I am actually slightly dyslexic, I just recalled that my mom used to take me to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153speech therapy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d courses as a child).<\/p>\n

Anyways, let me get back to the point: What is superfluous (unnecessary), and what causes us \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unhappiness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n

So let me map out some things (this time in bullet form) what is superfluous):<\/p>\n