Posts by Pacatus

Thanks, Cassius. It likely fits my "hypertexting mind" as well.

As best as I can recall, my introduction to Epicurus was DeWitt’s book, picked up randomly (or perhaps intuitively) from a library bookshelf. Next was Avraam Koen’s Atoms, Pleasure, Virtue: The Philosophy of Epicurus. I have since read others, including Catherine Wilson and Hiram Crespo; I have Cassius Amicus Elemental Epicureanism, which I am just beginning to delve into.

I just consider myself an explorer. [I have also read (strictly as an interested layperson) in Stoicism and Pyrrhonism. And some Wittgenstein.] I keep coming back to Epicurus both because of its “sensibleness” (double meaning intended) and its ability, thus far, to bring me back from turmoil to both pleasantness and calm.

I am an introvert who values a few friends. I do not take introversion as a problem: just a natural part of who I am—the same with my ADHD, which has benefits as well as constraints (I reject the “disorder” of that final “D”). I handle solitude well, but am not hermit. I am not a “joiner” by nature, and dislike anything that smacks of puritanism—in the sense of condemning further inquiry. I dislike strident argumentativeness.

The best model of a nurturing group environment that I have experienced was in 12-Step meetings, where direct cross-talk and criticism were discouraged—but where people shared often divergent viewpoints from their own experience, with an intimacy born of being in a safe environment. Lessons thus learned were indirect, rather than direct. More direct learning came from a sponsor, whom was freely chosen. It was a mutually nurturing friendship among people who might seldom meet outside that context.

I do not know if I “belong” here. But it seems a good place to continue exploring.

To borrow a phrase from Hemingway, I tend to see the Garden as “a moveable feast.”