"When Am I Done Being Good?"

Never, says the author of Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help. And that can be exhausting.

“...we are never done with justice or with human need; we are never done with other people, with compassion or respect; and we never get to exhale, gratefully, ‘I am done with being good.’” Kieran Setiya

But, I say, we can be done, over and over again throughout our lifetimes, with being exhausted and fully spent from the effort of living and fighting for justice, decency, honesty, mutual compassion etc. etc.

That’s what William James meant by moral holidays, the delightful atelic stretches when we detach from our projects, live in the moment, and renew ourselves before returning to the telic struggle. "I just TAKE my moral holidays," says James, for the most practical of reasons: I NEED them. They're good for us!

There are countless ways to take a moral holiday, depending on your personal nature and predilections. Watching the World Series (and reading about it, thanks to my wife's recent gift of Tyler Kepner's book) is one of mine. (Last night's Game 1 was thrilling and, uncannily, twelve years to the day since David Freese demoralized the Rangers in the 11th inning of Game 6.)

We’re about to pick up Life is Hard again, in my Intro classes. Students these days do seem to be finding everyday life, routine social encounters, and general uncertainty about the future (well, more the present in fact) pretty hard to handle. Setiya's philosophy can help. James's too. Walk it off.