I can’t resist. One more +1 on Aristotle. So… The Olympic Games started in Olympia (not too far outside of Athens) in 776 BC. A few centuries later, Aristotle told us that you can’t just SHOW UP at the Olympics and look like a great athlete, you have to actually COMPETE. Here’s how he puts it: “Just as at the Olympic Games it is not the best-looking or the strongest men present that are crowned with wreaths, but the competitors (because it is from them that the winners come), so it is those who act that rightly win the honours and rewards in life.” To recap his point: You can’t just KNOW how to live virtuously. You need to actually LIVE with virtue. I repeat: Theory is rudimentary philosophy. Practice is the advanced work. And, I’m reminded of Donald Robertson’s genius wisdom on the difference between being a warrior of the mind and a mere librarian of the mind. As we’ve discussed, in The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy he tells us: “The ancients conceived of the ideal philosopher as a veritable warrior of the mind, a spiritual hero akin to Hercules himself, but since the demise of the Hellenistic schools, the philosopher has become something more bookish, not a warrior, but a mere librarian of the mind.” Today’s +1. Is there a “theory” you need to make a “practice”? Yah? Which one? And how will you bring it to life today?! Here’s to leaving the library and heading into the Olympic arena that is our lives.
