thinking philosophy

The meaning of Life-Cpt.Quinn

Two adventurers pursuing happiness.What is the meaning of life? It is a commonly asked question and many spend their entire lives searching for the answer. It has a firm place in the roots of most religions. Perhaps it is a question that we spend too much time thinking about. Is it really that hard to answer?

Most of our experiences to date will tell us that when we are happy life is better. So why not spend our entire lives trying to maximize our happiness?

Three steps to happiness

Sunset on Haida Gwaii.The first step than would be to discover the things that make us happy. The second step of course would be to pursue these things. The third step is more of a rule to ensure that happiness can be a shared experience. It is to live in a good way with others always working towards a state of harmony. Respect will prove to be the most valuable tool when trying to complete this step.

I am not going to tell you how you should live your life but I will tell you that in a world where distraction is seemingly everywhere it is easy to loose sense of what is really important.

The answer can be as simple as developing and maintaining healthy relationships with good genuine sincere people and the surrounding environment to which we all belong while living in a good way.

until next time keep on adventuring,

Captain Quinn

Intelligence is Appreciation-Cpt.Quinn

Perhaps it is human nature to take things for granted, especially when it is at our disposal.  Or perhaps it is a by-product of us not recognizing the true value of things.  Maybe it is an unintentional lack of intelligence.  If intelligence is the ability to apply or acquire knowledge, where knowledge is the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject would it not stand to say that those who have the best understanding of a subject are the most intelligent.  As we define appreciation as understanding a situation fully, we can now recognize the relationship between intelligence and appreciation.  If intelligence is knowledge and knowledge is understanding which is pure appreciation, then intelligence is directly linked to appreciation.  Therefore, when we take something for granted we are demonstrating a lack of appreciation and therefore a lack of intelligence.

-Captain Quinn

Get in Touch with Nature the Natural Way...-Cpt.Quinn

Captain Quinn getting in touch with nature while Adventurer Nate admires his attire.

Whenever someone tells me that we need money to live, I have always replied "No, we don't, we need knowledge and good work ethic." And although this may be true in the basic world, in the societies of the developed world, that our predecessors have created for us, we do in fact need money to live. But this is only so because we have become so detached from our roots. We can now look to money to provide us with the necessities of life. We trade it for food, water, clothing and shelter.

As members of these societies we are part of a system that is very efficient and seemingly simple. We get a job and in this relationship we agree to trade our time for money, possibly forgetting that our time on this planet is, well, limited. We are willing to trade five of our seven days of the week (71% of our week) and eight of our waking hours a day (50% of our conscious time) for money. This is the majority of our time and we are willing to carry on in this fashion until we are no longer young anymore with the hopes that one day we will receive more money for our devotion when we are no longer sufficiently able to give it. 

To the person who is able to carry out this agreement with a sense of purpose and a general feeling of job satisfaction, well good for you, but you are a minority. The majority of the working class either don't make enough money or have little to no job satisfaction. And this is one of the many areas in which our societies are flawed.

Adventurers, left to right: Gary, Quinn, Joel, Nate.

Because we now need money to provide us with the necessities of life we have to get a job or we will die. Well, we better get a job than, but since we are going to devote the majority of our life to our job, lets pick something that pays well, we enjoy doing and that we can feel good about. This is where society interjects "uh hummm, not so fast, dreamer, we are going to need the majority of you to work for average wages in order to support the foundation of the system." In other words, when people go to trade their money for commodities we need you to be able to get the commodities to them, take their money in exchange and then plug that money back into the system. "Oh, you mean I can't do anything I want?" "Nope, sorry, you're a dreamer, now get back to work please."-"Yes, sir!"

Well, I for one am not a strong advocate of the system, yet I do see the value in it. So I guess you can call me a "dreamer" too. Dreaming aside however, we should never put our lives on cruise control. I believe that we should aim to make the most of our time on this planet because once we leave, we don't know what the next adventure will be. I believe that in order to make the most of our time here we need to have a healthy balance in our lives or as the Chinese would say, yin and yang. Furthermore, I feel that we cannot achieve a healthy balance without a wholesome taste of nature on a regular basis.

Adventurers, left to right: Quinn, Gary, Mia, Caleb, Bella, Mokie, Natty, Nate.

So leave your jobs, satisfying and well paying or not and step out into the bountiful beauty of nature for a spiritually enlightening experience. Forget your worries and maybe even your clothes. Clear your mind and refresh your soul, if only just for a day-you get seven per week! Get back in touch with your roots. Appreciate our environment and what it does for us on a daily basis, never take money too seriously because:

"Only after the last tree has been cut down.

Only after the last river has been poisoned.

Only after the last fish has been caught.

Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."

-Cree Indian Prophecy

There is an entire world of adventure out there to explore, take the time to enjoy it. But even more so, take the time to appreciate it.

-Captain Quinn

Things and Stuff-Cpt.Quinn

"The thing about stuff is that it is just a collection of things.  If one goes through life constantly turning things into stuff, than their life will be nothing more than things and stuff.  If one chooses to recognize the simple things in life than their things are no longer just things or stuff and their vocabulary becomes open to an entirely new world of emotion."

-Captain Quinn