I read this Margaret Killjoy article about the “punk rock good life” recently, and have been thinking a lot about what I want from life.
What makes a “good life” for you?
I’m generally happy usually, financially stable, eat okay, cut out the shitty people in my life, exercise regularly, speak to a therapist twice a month, take a couple medications and regularly help in my local community. The former one completely because of the latter 7.
A good life is something that you notice rather than decide. You probably have to go through hardship to acually appreciate when life is good.
Take only photos, leave only footprints.
Leave the world a better place than you found it.
Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
It aint hard ✌️
Edit: also, try not to violate the weekend saftey brief.
My knee-jerk reaction would be “if you’re happy”, but I had an epiphany a while back:
I was chitchatting with a coworker over way too many beers and he asked me something along the lines of “were you happy growing up (insert background here)”, and after weighing my words I responded that “I would’ve been, except I’m generally not near happy as a baseline”.So am I satisfied with my life? Yes.
Do I have worries? Yes, like anyone else on this planet. Mine are pretty minor and not debilitating.
Do I consider myself happy now? See above.But yet, I’d conclude that I’m living a good life, even if I’m generally a grumpy guy.
I try (everything is progress towards a known unreachable ideal character) to live a righteous life while believing in God and the Day of Judgment with excitement, not fear (whilst still keeping in mind my share of this world). In Kierkegaard’s terms: I’ve left the aesthetic stage, walked through the ethical stage and I leapt into the religious stage, and God caught me. Once you do that, I’ve found that the rest comes by itself, and your fulfilment is mostly guaranteed (this is still just my personal experience though).
Kierkegaard and Fred Clark have almost got me as far as Christianity. The infinite movement/the jump does seem like it could be the answer sometimes.


