No, this is not a post about illicit pharmaceuticals. ^_-
Before I get into the content of the post itself, I want to apologize for letting so many weeks lapse between this and my last post on this blog. It's been much harder than I initially imagined to find the time to write the kinds of posts I wanted to for this blog, as well as keep up with In Pursuit of Pretty Things. So, I thank you for all hanging in there with me and for your patience, while I figure out how to streamline my workflow and time to accommodate Material Good.
This is the post that probably should have come at the beginning of this blog, laying out what I'm hoping to talk, write about, and discuss with you here. I apologize for the poor sequencing - but I can be impulsive, which means that when I get excited and actually write and finish a post about something, I find myself wanting to publish it right away.
John the Chemist is a guy my husband and I met on an airplane, about eight years ago. He was sitting next to Lawrence (it was one of those 3-seat rows, and I had the aisle seat, and John the Chemist had the window) and we call him "John the Chemist," because he introduced himself to Lawrence as John, then added that he was a professor of Chemistry at a well-known university on the east coast. Something my husband was reading caught the interest of said gentleman, and they struck up a conversation that eventually meandered into a range of metaphysical topics, including what it meant to be human and what they both imagined was the point of it all.
Anyway, to make a long story short, my husband's take-away from that conversation were the three things that John the Chemist suggested as guidelines for living a meaningful, positive, and fulfilled life: 1) love unconditionally, 2) live a spiritual life, and 3) heal inner wounds. At the time, I wasn't that impressed. But with the passing of years, I've come to realize that it's quite possible that these three things pretty much cover all the bases. The way you work on them can be wide and varied and unique to yourself, of course - and I'll be the first to say, that I struggle with all of these things on a fairly regular basis. Still, I think it's worthwhile to make consistent and ongoing attempts to do these things and what's worked best for me over the years is to remain open-minded and embrace uncertainty as fully as possible, as it's the uncertainties that often create possibilities in life.
At any rate, it's likely that some of the things I write about here, on Material Good will explore these (my and maybe yours) uncertainties, attempts, and further questions. So I'm curious - what are your guidelines for living a positive and fulfilled life? Are they at all in line with John the Chemist's?
