I hope everyone is doing well, and that the pleasures of life outweigh any pain!
I have been wanting to give a brief update on my whereabouts for a bit of time now, but juggling two jobs has taken up so much time that the moments I do have to myself are usually mental recovery and preparation for the next round of work! Despite this however, I've made time for reading and philosophy, and at the very least to remain an observer of the going-ons in here in the forums.
Before continuing, is Charles still active? I haven't seen him on Discord in quite some time and last we spoke he had found some work that was keeping him quite busy.
Despite the busyness of my two jobs, I also became a moderator for a Stoic focused Discord server, and have to say it has been quite the experience. I mention this because the interesting pattern that seems to be in these servers (as far as Stoicism goes) is that you can only really call these seekers "Neo-Stoics" at best. Most members are not looking for virtue for virtue's sake, but rather just some armor to mitigate the daily stresses of life. There's also a big focus on preferred indifferences in these circles as well, almost to the point where you'd want to say that "You're just pursuing pleasure with some extra steps!"
Needless to say, I don't proselytize for any one school of philosophy, but this has led to some great discussions on Epicureanism, and where its teachings can be applied even if they still choose to identify or pursue Stoicism. Well, at least what they call Stoicism anyway
Of course, the learning has gone both ways, and there are some aspects of Stoicism I admire and pluck from them so as to add it to my own practices. There's a lot of people out there seeking wisdom and guidance on how to live it seems, so I can't help but to use this post to make a comment about creating and maintaining a Discord server for Epicureanism. There's an increasing number of online communities flocking there, and yet Stoic philosophy servers seem to be the ones dominating the discourse, but many members of these servers are more eclectic and diverse than just traditional Stoicism.
A garden among citadels would make for a nice change of scenery and pace, no?
Alas, that is a project needing attention and time, as Charles and I did try to make a run at a server (which is still there by the way!), and I also tried a link to another Discord server from this very site, but it would not load for some reason?
I believe this update is long enough and I must return to work, so I will end somewhat abruptly here.
May pleasure rise to meet you!