Finally, Tranquillity

Finally, Tranquillity...it’s been ten weeks coming according to Ben Franklin’s self improvement program, that I gladly adopted to experiment with and with a few reservations I am happy to have done it, but wow, do you find tranquillity a much needed respite after digging around for a week at a time looking for temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, sincerity, justice, moderation and cleanliness inside or surrounding one’s self. Phew! A hiatus is much needed....


And since tranquillity is just a subjective word that means so many different things to so many different ‘others’ that I am aware of out there every where deciding, just like I am, what does this mean? It means exactly what we each decide for it to and not one thing else.

Which reminds me of what happened to our friend Ben Franklin when sharing this whole process he had for perfecting himself, by himself, for himself...and, the original twelve virtues that he practised for years before an Amish friend chastised him for not having Humility listed as one of his virtues, and of course his good friend reminded him that that was one virtue sadly lacking in our friend Ben.

Well, from my way of thinking, after putting this process into play into my own life, I can say that humility is the one constant stance of anyone undergoing the discovery of these virtues as a reflection to one’s self...the whole process is a humbling one, and therefore, I object to the addition and find it placed there by a force outside the process who never tried it before trying to perfect it. So typical of progress, aye?

Next week will be Chastity and was originally the twelfth and final virtue before returning to do them all over again in a mathematical sequence that balanced out the year perfectly for moral improvement for one’s self...and, though I have it on my morality board as the final addition, I have checks by it for every other virtue I have attempted since starting this whole maddeningly self revealing process...I am a humble mess. I am nothing, as well as knowing nothing for sure which makes me rather enlightened by the standards of nothingness, which I am.

I have to laugh, as my board sits out in plain sight for all to see what I am up to (and is supplied on my blog for the world to peruse) ...and, I have discovered along the way that a few people I know are following along and doing the same. My daughter walked by yesterday and blatantly said, “Don’t think I am doing chastity with you!” and I had to laugh and explain that Ben’s idea of chastity was not abstinence of sexual gratification, but the use of it ‘for health’ and ‘offspring (like herself) and never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation’...she got a big smile and said ‘I like that man’.

Yes, I too, have always liked Ben Franklin, even if he didn’t do his own dishes. I wish I could discuss with him what he thought was tranquil in juxtaposition of what I find tranquil to be. For me, it is at this moment, just a feeling of not worrying about one ‘other’ thing, being in the moment of which I am without feeling the need to be anywhere else, do anything else or become anything more than I am at this moment. In theory, I am tranquil at the moment, as for me, writing is the most tranquil of places and spaces wherein I get to decide everything, the beginning, the middle, the end.