The Unexamined Life

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

-Socrates

Quite the statement in the face of a trial of executioners. Yet here is Socrates, standing brazenly before the maw choosing hemlock over exile, quite literally dying on his intellectual sword. It would be very easy to take this statement, and its context as the summation of ethical purity and commitment to the idealism grind. However, in listening to a discussion on this discourse (insert intellectual superiority here) has me thinking in a slightly different lane.

Call it a counterpoint or caveat to this sweeping statement before we delve fully into a life of introspection and discernment, namely that, an unlived life is not worth examining. I truly believe that our trials, our experiences (specifically those that could be categorized as a shit time) give us our depths. You must struggle, break to grow, live to have something worth examining; because the alternative is to continually be disheartened by our introspection.

There is not much in the author's personal experience that can be discerented other than a particularly cancerous feeling of worthlessness on delving into an hour of your life spent doomscrolling. The value in examination is putting your intellect and morality up against real lived experiences. Failures, shortcomings, success, love, heartbreak all of these facets of our existence merit a deep dive into the very fabric of who we are.

You cannot dive into an empty pool, so at a certain point life is a prerequisite to understanding. So drink deeply from that cup y’all, and hope it’s not hemlock.