---
title: ▍Nine Things I Learned in Ninety Year
created: 2025-10-18T16:08:27
modified: 2025-10-22T22:53:39
author: Edward Packard
draft: false
category: Essay
url: https://edwardpackard.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nine-Things-I-Learned-In-Ninety-Years.pdf
---

1. to be self-constituted

	> In her book Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009) Harvard philosopher Christine Korsgaard draws on Kant’s and Aristotle’s philosophy to make a case for self-constitution — <mark>being “consistent, unified, and whole”— having “integrity.”</mark> Korsgaard says that to be good at being a person, <mark>you need to be committed to acting in accord with what Kant called “a universal law,”</mark> for which I would substitute “a virtuous moral framework.” How is that constructed? A strand of thought in philosophy asserts that moral precepts can’t be scientifically established — they are indicia of the ways of thinking of particular cultures or religions. Arrayed against this dismal take on our need for guidance are propositions in the “we hold these truths to be self-evident” category, basic principles like, what causes or tends to cause misery and suffering is bad; what causes or tends to cause joy and happiness is good. <mark>Anger, hatred, envy, jealousy, dishonesty, meanness, vengefulness, cruelty, resentment, and despair are bad; joy, cheerfulness, kindliness, fairness, compassion, and honesty are good.</mark> That’s my moral framework as far as I’ve developed it.

	> Professor Korsgaard says, “Your movements have to come from your constitutional rule over yourself. Otherwise, you’ll be ruled by a heap of impulses.” That permeated my consciousness. <mark>If you aren’t self-constituted, if you aren’t unified, if you don’t have integrity, you’ll be a mess.</mark>

2. to keep awake and aware

	> <mark>Sleepwalking is an all too accessible alternative to confronting inconvenient facts.</mark>

	> One can stop sleepwalking and keep awake and aware by becoming a buddha. […] In Hanh’s book The Art of Living (2017), he says that being a buddha doesn’t require any particular belief or practice.

3. to consider what others may be thinking and feeling

	> For most of my life, whenever I spoke or acted, I first considered what seemed to be in my best interest, or, more often, gave no thought to the matter at all. Only rarely did I consider how anyone affected by what I said, or did, or failed to say or do, would react.

	> It took me a long time to learn to give thought to what may be going on in the minds of people I’m interacting with, <mark>both empathetically — sensing how others are feeling — and cognitively — conjecturing how they are thinking.</mark>

4. to make happiness my default state of mind

	> Post by Dalai Lama: <mark>As long as we observe love for others and respect for their rights and dignity in our daily lives</mark>, then whether we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in the Buddha or God, follow some religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy.

	> Another post by Dalai Lama: Even more important than the warmth and affection we receive, is the warmth and affection we give. […] <mark>More important than being loved, therefore, is to love.</mark>

5. to seek an eternal perspective

	> <mark>“compassion without attachment,” a condition in which “you can stay alive, in action, but be disengaged from desire for, and fear of, the fruits of your action.”</mark> Achieving a similarly expansive embrace of life and the world — an eternal perspective — <mark>“A man strong in character hates no one, is angry with no one, envies no one, is indignant with no one, scorns no one, and is not at all proud.”</mark>

6. to guard against self-deception

	> <mark>Self-deception occurs when one’s decisions and conclusions are driven or influenced by skewed beliefs, unbalanced emotional states, wishful thinking.</mark>

	> “All conscious perception depends on unconscious processes.” Unconscious processes skewed my conscious perceptions, clearing paths to self-deceptions.

7. how to confront mortality

	> <mark>The path to equanimity, self-control, and disinterest in one’s mortality is to be found in gaining an eternal perspective through knowledge and understanding.</mark>

8. what an outsized role is played by luck
9. to consider what you have at the moment