In recent years I've found myself under the influence of what might be termed Virtue Ethics in the Aristotelian tradition. The sense of the need to strive to manifest virtue I find deeply appealing, though I hasten to add I'm painfully aware of ways in which I fall short. (Perhaps that's part of what is so meaningful about this way of looking at the world. You actively are made aware of deficiencies in a way that does not allow for complacency.)
It struck me today that the notion of grace under pressure is directly related to this complex of ideas, and it's fascinating to reflect on how often thinkers who might broadly be regarded as existentialist are drawn to this powerful idea. In this respect I suppose we are to welcome the kind of pressures that allow us to manifest strengths that might otherwise never be apparent, or allowed to develop.
Gulp. The implications of this train of thought are deeply unsettling. For the moment I'll happily make do with the quiet life, inauthentic as that may be.
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