New Rule: Embrace the Philosophy of Your Babushka
Despite any jazziness in expression, most of my philosophical positions turn out to be fairly traditional. Here is a sample with corresponding entries linked:
I believe in God in the same way that the Orthodox Church, where I was baptized, believes in Him.
I aim for virtue, understanding it as the ancient Stoics and Christians do.
And please do not get me started on demons.
Wow, I just realized I basically have the same philosophy as my babushka. I could have avoided all those years of philosophical rumination if I had discovered this sooner. While I use smart-sounding terms that are cringe in polite company - panentheism, minimum viable philosophy, supercompatibilism - they all can be expressed plainly:
God is everywhere,
Goodness is what matters most,
We are free, despite what “the science” says,
I am a familialist at heart, and my late baba was the center of gravity for our family. I feel her presence all the time. I love her. I love my family. I was disconnected from the spirit of my family, spending many years thinking about things my baba intuitively knew. Everyone in my family admired her not because of her theories but because of her goodness.
She did not have fancy philosophical arguments to support how she lived. She did not need them; she just lived from her goodness. Her simple encouragement was for us not to worry and to be happy. I know nothing more wise than that. My greatest philosophical influence: baba. New rule: embrace the philosophy of your babushka.
Yes, I just solved philosophy again, and this is a rule we can all embody. Maybe you did not have a baba, but a granny, mémé, nonna, or oma. Sense her goodness and what she meant to your family. It could even be an ancestor she was connected to—her baba’s baba or prababa’s prababa.
Sense “far back” as needed because there is goodness there. The people who gifted you this life, giving you the eyes to read these words, had goodness in them. You have goodness in you. We are all good enough; if we ground ourselves in this timeless truth, we unfold into greater goodness.
My baba was always so good to me. When I visited her, she made the most fantastic borscht. Her English was not the best, and I never listened to anyone when I was a kid, but when my baba told me, “Eat, Peter, eat,” I always listened.
Keeping consistent with The Stoa’s comment policy, I’ll be turning off the comments section on this Substack to spend less time on this platform and social media in general. I will check the email associated with this account - thestoa at protonmail dot com - once a week on Saturdays. If you did not know, you can simply press reply and send me a message if you are reading this from your email. I much prefer reading more personalized and intimate emails rather than comments, and I always feel grateful when receiving them.