Philosophies of Life...!! !

Someone asked me recently if there was some philosophy by which I tried to live my life. This was my reply:

I find that being an atheist, while not exactly diminishing the repertoire of philosophies one can live by, does allow you to cut them from a tangier wheel of cheese than that with which the more pious might top their existential crackers (that said, I’m really just a red cheddar kind of guy).

I don’t consciously try to follow any particular philosophy (I don’t think I’d be any good at that), but there are some general points that are usually kept somewhat operational in the mid levels of consciousness. Here are the ones I can think of (in no particular order):

• Pay attention, ask questions, and take notes.
• Try it. You might like it.
• On balance, try to be a net gain in any situation.
• Do no harm.
• If you must, do so with overwhelming force and a clear exit strategy.
• If you do fuck up, stand up and take the bullet. No one wants to listen to excuses and besides, it probably doesn’t matter anyway.
• Be honest and sincere, even if you must lie.
• As far as anyone knows we only get one shot at life so make it fun. Technically, everything is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
• Be polite. It makes such a difference.
• Don’t worry about making the world a better place because very few of us actually know what “better” means. It’s probably enough to leave it as you found it. And clean up after yourself.
• Make sure you always care for something else — another living thing. It could be a plant, it could be a pet, it could be a relative. It can’t be your car or your hi-fi or your shoes (which should be reasonably but not obsessively well polished).
• Play regularly.
• Try to read more.
• Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.

I guess any list of one’s philosophies of life comes off sounding like that terrible “wear sunscreen” thing of a few years ago, but there you have it. The principles which have, er … got me where I am today.