Reed wrote:
<<I agree with that, more or less. The next stage is to pare down
those core values to the bare minimum (Susan Blackmore would
seem to argue there aren't any you really need) and let everything
else go. Eventually, one of the things each of us will have to
give up is <reason>. Everything must go before <I> can go.>>
I believe you can, with much work, choose and change your core values. But
you cannot change your core needs for fulfillment. There are the essential
experiences in life that give you that deep sense of life being worth
living. The last third of my book Getting Past OK is devoted to
self-analysis to determine what these are for the reader. For instance, I
used to try to change my core need to feel special because I judged that it
was inappropriate/spoiled/whatever. When I realized that it was an ineffable
part of my personality, and in fact an enormously powerful force in my life,
instead of trying to change it I harnessed it for constructive uses. It is
possible to be
especially generous, productive, or loyal and derive the essential feeling
from that.
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com
Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
Free newsletter! http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm