Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt: The end for us all is clear, but is my purpose?
I don’t believe that “things happen for a reason.” Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. But I do think each person can find meaning–personal meaning–in any event that happens in their lives, and if it’s an event they had input into, they can look at the results to learn and grow. My purpose, I think, is to learn and adapt and evolve as a human being for the short, unknown period of time I have on this earth, to try to find opportunity in adversity, and to rejoice in being part of something bigger than me.
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I went out earlier tonight to take a look at the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. They’re not quite at their closest point yet–that will take place on Monday–but I wanted to take advantage of the clear weather tonight. The photo above is from Yuzhno-Morskoy, Russia.
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Mandalorian thoughts (SPOILERS!)
Tonight was the finale of the second season. The series takes place after the end of Return of the Jedi. The Empire has fallen, although clearly there are remnants of it everywhere. It’s a good reminder that the Star Wars universe must be pretty big, and things must not have really changed much for people living out on the periphery (or Outer Rim, if you will). So when the Jedi shows up to pick up Grogu, we know immediately this is a Jedi (lightsabre is a dead giveaway) but Mando (who we already know was sort of living under a rock) does not. Surprisingly enough, it doesn’t really seem anyone else does, either. But when I think about it…There aren’t really many Jedi left, and they are pretty secretive. Of course, we’ve watched a particular Jedi defeat the Emperor, but the rest of the universe likely just saw the downfall of the Empire thanks to a whole lot of regular people. We have privileged information.
Also, I love Cara Dune, not least because she’s built like a tank.
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A friend posted the music link below of Kmart Christmas tunes from 1974, and suddenly I’m back in one of those big discount department stores in December in the mid-70s. If it were 1974 for me, it would have likely been Rink’s rather than Kmart–we really didn’t start going to Kmart at all until the following year, after the move. I’m trying to remember what I got for Christmas that year, which would have been the last Christmas at the house where I was born. I don’t know whether that was the year of the Barbie townhouse (with the elevator!) or the Barbie camper (with the pop-out tent!), but I do know I got one of those in 1973 and one in 1974. Here’s some pics:
This would have been my second year in the church choir, and I would have progressed from the Cherub Choir, with its choir robe with big blue bow, to the Carol Choir, with its slightly more subdued red one. I suspect this was the last year I would have visited Santa (although I was starting to become suspicious, having noted Santa’s handwriting was awfully similar to my mom’s), as by the following year I was definitely no longer a believer. What I remember of discount stores during the 70s at Christmas? Tinsel. Lots and lots of tinsel. And certainly, this kind of music–almost all instrumental, played by huge orchestras.
Scilicet 