{"id":11662,"date":"2010-03-25T10:30:54","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T17:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=11662"},"modified":"2010-06-26T07:52:54","modified_gmt":"2010-06-26T14:52:54","slug":"splendorquest-my-plan-to-stage-a-graceful-exit-from-life-when-the-pursuit-of-splendor-has-become-impossible-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11662\/splendorquest-my-plan-to-stage-a-graceful-exit-from-life-when-the-pursuit-of-splendor-has-become-impossible-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"SplendorQuest: My plan to stage a graceful exit from life when the pursuit of Splendor has become impossible to me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under the wide and starry sky,
\nDig the grave and let me lie.
\nGlad did I live and gladly die,
\nAnd I laid me down with a will.<\/p>\n

This be the verse you grave for me:
\n‘Here he lies where he longed to be;
\nHome is the sailor, home from sea,
\nAnd the hunter home from the hill.’<\/em>
\n      –Robert Louis Stevenson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is important: Everything that matters in human life is to be found to the right of the zero on the number line. Zero is never greater than one, so concentrating on the zero or on negative values is necessarily<\/em> anegoic — contrary to the true interests of the ego.<\/p>\n

Can it sometimes be needful to attend to negative values? Yes. I speak of eradicating bugs all the time, since this is a useful metaphor for understanding the actual meaning and importance of disvalues. If my food is being devoured by ants, I need to to exterminate them. If there is a scorpion in my home (it happens here), I have to crush it — grind it to a gooey pulp. If a two-legged predator attempts to confiscate my wealth, I must be prepared to defend myself.<\/p>\n

But this is not<\/em> what human life is for. Some days are cloudy, but if I focus on the clouds rather than on the illimitable sunlight I can produce by using my mind to its fullest, I am throwing away the only life I will ever have in pursuit of nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n

But: Even so: I can foresee that there will come a time in my life when the pursuit of Splendor will no longer be possible to me. Until lately, I thought the most likely scenario would be that the accumulated effects of aging would render me incompetent to continue to thrive at a fully-human state of being. Given the resurgence of Marxism under President Obama, it seems plausible to me, of late, that I might be imprisoned for my philosophical positions. And there is also the possibility that I might someday find myself unable to produce more wealth that I consume. The most likely cause of this would be the government’s progressive destruction of Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me: ‘Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-group-therapy","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10037,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10037\/capture-appreciation-and-cash-flow\/","url_meta":{"origin":11662,"position":0},"title":"Capture Appreciation and Cash Flow","author":"Cooksquared","date":"October 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The advantage of investing in today\u2019s market is the potential to capture appreciating assets that provide strong cash flow. These investments are the holy grail of real estate investing. In strong markets, these properties simply don\u2019t exist, but in down markets, a smart investor can pick out these diamonds among\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18211,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18211\/overnight-news-the-future-of-the-phoenix-real-estate-market-grave-robbing-the-delusions-of-urban-marxists\/","url_meta":{"origin":11662,"position":1},"title":"Overnight News: The future of the Phoenix real estate market? Grave-robbing the delusions of urban\u00a0Marxists.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Passions cool because they must: You can't floor it forever. But it matters a lot where and how they cool. There are daily riots in Minneapolis right now, and, sad to say, that's good for the Phoenix real estate market. There are shootings every day in Chicago \u2013 and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":199,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/199\/butler-prices-down-sales-up-logic-sideways\/","url_meta":{"origin":11662,"position":2},"title":"Butler: Prices down, sales up, logic sideways . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Catherine Reagor in today's Republic:Home prices dipped slightly in July, but sales inched up from June. The median home price of a used Valley home fell to $264,900 last month, after climbing to a record $267,000 in June. There were 5,545 resales in July, compared with 5,460 the month before,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14552,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14552\/brett-arends-from-the-wall-street-journal-on-zillows-morning-gloom-report-all-this-bearish-news-makes-me-bullish\/","url_meta":{"origin":11662,"position":3},"title":"Brett Arends from the Wall Street Journal on Zillow’s morning gloom report: “All this bearish news makes me bullish.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Our friends at Zillow.com have figured out the secret to getting news coverage: Bad news:Home values in the United States fell faster in the first quarter of 2011 than they have in any quarter since 2008, when the housing market experienced its worst performance, according to Zillow's first quarter Real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10203,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10203\/the-net-effect-of-government-intrusions-in-the-real-estate-market-is-to-create-a-standing-wave-of-foreclosures-amid-steadily-declining-home-values\/","url_meta":{"origin":11662,"position":4},"title":"“The net effect of government intrusions in the real estate market is to create a standing wave of foreclosures amid steadily-declining home values”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This from my Arizona Republic real estate column: As I write this, the entire real estate industry is on tenterhooks, waiting to see if the $8,000 first-time home-buyers tax credit is going to be extended. It's not really a tax credit, it's a taxpayer-funded subsidy, a \"gift\" extracted by force\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6931,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6931\/marketing-advice-from-the-grave\/","url_meta":{"origin":11662,"position":5},"title":"Marketing Advice from the Grave","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"February 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"San Diego lost a local icon last Friday.\u00a0 George \"King\" Stahlman was a bail bondsman known throughout the county and I suspect, thanks to this once being simply a \"Navy town,\" parts well beyond the county.\u00a0 His passing, while important to many, is not really the stuff of a national\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11662"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12420,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11662\/revisions\/12420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}