Blog 28.03.

Ship: Johnny
Date: 28th March, 2025
Position: Horta
Nautical Position: 38°31,8′ N 028°37,5′ W
Etmal: 0
Total distance: 11.902

Today, nothing much really happened: In the morning, we took down the mainsail, outer jib and course sail and in the afternoon, we got Free Shore Leave with our phones from 12:00 to 19:00. Finally, in the evening, we received some money to eat outside („Essensgeld“) and were allowed to go on shore for another two hours (20:00 to 22:00). As you can see, there isn’t much to tell, which is why I’m writing another philosophy blog.

Since I didn’t have any ideas on what to write, I just took our infamous Daily Stoic and read the entry for the current date. And voilà, another interesting article.

The Stoic is divided into three parts and this specific entry is in Part One, which is all about the discipline of perception. What does that mean? The Stoics believe that self-control is the key to one’s happy and successful life and before achieving self-control, you first have to know what you’re doing and thinking, and that’s what Part One’s entries (including today’s) are all about. Also, Part One’s first page has got a really cool design.

Furthermore, every month is dedicated to a more specific aspect of its part: January is about clarity, July (in Part Two) about duty and March is about awareness. So that’s what the article is about, the Discipline of Perception and, more precisely, Awareness.

So I read the headline and was utterly confused: Cowardice as a design problem. What does that even mean? What has a design problem to do with perception or self-consciousness? Something so shallow in a philosophy book? But I kept on reading.

Here it is, the quote. I read it and became more and more confused. What does „erratic“ mean? What do you mean by the design? And what does it have to do with principles or shameful conduct? And where did the „remove the faults that detain our spirits“ come from?

So I reread it, and it clicked: The design is a plan that you need to always behave in a consistent and good way, so you don’t have to retreat (which is embarrassing). But to get a good plan, you need principles and some effort. Finally, you need to get creative and escape the chains of your bad habits to even start gathering your principles.

So I read the explanation of the author, who apparently thought similarly. He just stressed the fact that chaos ensues when you don’t have a plan.

Finally, the title and the quote make sense. If you don’t design, if you don’t plan your life, you will get into situations where you’ll have to behave with cowardice and retreat or change your behavior.

Greetings:

Anna L.: Alles alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Papa!❤️❤️ Lass‘ Dich feiern, ich freue mich voll, Dich bald wieder zu sehen! Weiß leider nicht, wann der Blog hochgeladen wird, deswegen hab ich einfach mal bei diesem hier reingeschrieben.
Danke für die Briefe, ich hab‘ mich richtig doll gefreut😘