Effects of Dialogue, Odysseus Choosing Humanity, Aristotelian Character, and Meaning in Life

We start off with a quote about the helpful effects of dialogue and discuss that, including how dialogue can get you out of your head, that ruminating room.  Then we talk about Odysseus’ choosing Penelope, uncertainty and mortality over Calypso, paradise and immortality and that Penelope also represents something the Immortals may not have: virtue, which is eternal.  We discuss John Vervaeke’s telling of Aristotle’s version of life’s meaning: to become as fully human as you can by developing your character, and what aspects of our own we will try out this week.  Finally, we discuss with more passion than progress the problem of finding meaning in life today amidst the unending freedom, platitudes, and advertisements for the chimera of: body, money, and politics.  But like Odysseus, I think wherever we end up, we choose life.