Movers and Shakers

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living? 

Worth. That’s a word that carries so much weight. In our society worth is determined in countless ways, which makes achieving it so much harder. How does one achieve a life that has value? Money, family, self-respect, gaining the respect of others, professional developments…the list could go on and on. I can’t answer this question without defining that word. Worth. And I don’t agree with any of those definitions either. So, I’ll make my own.

A life worth living means acceptance. Not a passive or submissive type of acceptance, but a progressive one. Sure, this is a contradiction, but that’s okay because most things in life are. Think about it. Progressive acceptance. It makes sense. It means understanding something and accepting it as truth, while still working to change it for the better. And as it changes, more acceptance and understanding is required, which makes the whole thing a grand process. When that starts happening is when life gains value. But acceptance can’t just happen. That’d be meaningless. To accept truth, it has to be examined from every possible angle. It has to be analyzed, critiqued, and seriously questioned. For a life to be worth living, acceptance has to happen, meaning that the truth has to be examined. That’s the only way.

I’ve thought about this. My ideas may not be clear and my words are definitely clumsy. It’s hard to understand, but it’s definitely possible. I’ve examined this. Have you?

Gadfly

That’s such a weird word. So I’m going to use another word that to me, has the same meaning. Shaker. 

“We are the music-makers, 


And we are the dreamers of dreams, 


Wandering by lone sea-breakers, 


And sitting by desolate streams. 


World-losers and world-forsakers, 


Upon whom the pale moon gleams; 


Yet we are the movers and shakers, 


Of the world forever, it seems.”

 – from “We Are the Music-Makers” by Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy

This poem says it all. Shakers are the minority in our society and commonly oppressed out of fear. Why fear Shakers? Because of what a Shaker does. A Shaker is a person who ruffles the feathers of the flock and dares to fly the other way. Shakers examine life and propose change. Shakers set things in motion.