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January 31, 2010
Read a lot, forget most of what you read, and be slow-witted
I have found a soulmate. He is happy; endlessly fascinating; charming; honest; wise; humane and tolerant; doesn't take himself too seriously. To top it all off - he's written a bestseller. Oh, and I almost forgot.. he's number Seven of the Enneagram!
But, as luck would have it, there is a slight problem - he lived almost 500 years ago.
His name is Michel de Montaigne and I'm totally captivated by my new friend. For, despite the distance of centuries, he understood what it's like to be me. And maybe you too (we can share him).
Sarah Bakewell has written a wonderful book about that great humanist and a quintessential Renaissance Man. It's called How to live: A life of Montaigne in one questions and twenty attempts at an answer.
Montaigne himself would never pontificate on how one should live. Simply by writing about himself he created a mirror in which others could recognize their own humanity. One could even say he was a prototype blogger.
Here are ten of the twenty 'answers' Montaigne might have given to the question of How to live , according to his biographer:
Don't worry about Death.
Pay attention.
Survive love and loss.
Read a lot, forget most of what you read, and be slow-witted. (my favourite, as I already live by it!)
Question everything.
See the world.
Reflect on everything; regret nothing.
Do a good job, but not too good a job.
Give up control.
Be ordinary and imperfect.
And I shall return to the Enneagram business on another occasion..
Posted by Marzena at January 31, 2010 06:25 PM