Monday, 7 February 2022

Ethical Living - Part Two

Do you usually associate ethical living with being clean in morals and emotions and motives and manners and environmental practices? 

Do you usually associate ethical living with moderation, especially to ensure cleanliness and other intentions do not become unreasonable obsessions or irrational compulsions?

Do you usually associate ethical living with the careful assessment of motivation, intentions and expectations?

Welcome to part two in this series, and to the questions associated with it.

How have you responded to part one, and what motivated you to do so?

Why are you here now?

What is your current age and how much time do you think you are willing to devote to ethical living, and thinking about the subject carefully, today, tomorrow and for however long you may be expected to live?

How much time did you devote last year towards thinking about, and expressing, ethical living, and did you do so with consistent authenticity?

It is always important to begin thinking about ethics in terms of authenticity.

This year, there are likely to be no more than twelve updates in total on this noticeboard.

How many updates did you experience here last year, and why did you do so?

Most of the updates here last year were described as episodes rather than parts, in keeping with the assessment requirements of the Council of Enlightenment.

You have apparently not yet begun to provide episodes of your authenticity for the council to examine.

If you are unsure how to start.  Perhaps you will provide an overview of the first thirty years of your life.

If you have not yet experienced thirty years of life, that is likely to indicate that you are not yet qualified to be assessed.

Young people are often either overly enthusiastic and overly confident or they are overly anxious and overly depressed.  They may even change from enthusiasm to depression and back again from moment to moment.  The same applies to many older persons lacking psychological maturity, emotional intelligence, moral intelligence and insight.

Young people and other immature persons may be regarded as quite entertaining at times, at least to some people.  They may even have the ability to teach knowledge and skills in some contexts, even quite competently.  However, they are not particularly capable of teaching ethical living.  They may, instead, encourage people to follow fads and fashions and whatever other latest craze arises.

Immature persons often base their assessments of the truth on popularity, not integrity.

Despite its relatively cute and somewhat kitsch appearance in the minds of ordinary persons, Frugality Cottage is not a popular venue.  Immature persons tend to feel uncomfortable here and do not stay long.  They are easily distracted.  They are frightened by true enlightenment, especially when the Spirit of Enlightenment or one of her ethereal associates suddenly appears in the sitting room or on the stairs in ghost-like form.

The minds of immature persons tend to be cluttered with biases and superstitions and the remnants of earlier influences and false assumptions.

Your experiences of authentic living will continue to be judged by the Council of Enlightenment in terms of ethics, epistemology, aesthetics and metaphysics.

Please ensure your updated response to episode one is no longer than one minute. 

You will only be invited to provide an updated response to episode two if the council unanimously approves of your updated response to episode one.

Where did you present your responses to the episodes last year, and who assessed them?

Did you ensure your response to episode one was no longer than one minute?

Did you ensure your response to episode two was no longer than two minutes?

Did you ensure your response to episode three was no longer than three minutes?

Did you ensure your response to episode four was no longer than four minutes? 

Did you ensure your response to episode five was no longer than five minutes? 

Did you ensure your response to episode six was no longer than six minutes?

Did you ensure your response to episode seven was no longer than seven minutes?

Did you ensure your response to episode eight was no longer than eight minutes? 

Did you ensure your response to episode nine was no longer than nine minutes? 

Did you ensure your response to episode ten was no longer than ten minutes?

Did you ensure your response to episode eleven was no longer than eleven minutes?

Did you ensure your response to episode twelve was no longer than twelve minutes? 

As you will have noticed, at least if you are capable of doing so, an important educational pattern has been established in relation to the episodes, and in relation to interpersonal practices.

Do you have a habit of overwhelming people with too much information?

Do you have a habit of underwhelming people with not enough information?

Do you have a habit of annoying people with irrelevant information in terms of their own needs and interests?

Do you have a habit of upsetting people by ridiculing their ignorance of your knowledge? 

Do you have a habit of angering people by disregarding their needs, concerns and values?

Perhaps you lack insight into your habits.

Perhaps you believe your ethics are a matter of habit.

What do you know about your ethics in terms of privacy?

How carefully have you considered ethical matters in your presentation of episodes on authentic living?

Only enlightened beings are suitably qualified to be considered as genuine world leaders. The Council of Enlightenment is seeking to assess you in that regard.

Do please subscribe to the most relevant YouTube channel if you wish to learn more about enlightened being, authentic living and ethical living.  Also do your best, if possible, to encourage other people to do likewise. That would indicate you have at least a small amount of potential as an enlightened being, and as a real world leader, even if you are not yet thirty years of age.

Enlightened being is a necessary prerequisite for the development and implementation of quality constitutions, quality policies and quality governments.  Such practices of quality are obviously associated with ethical living and enlightened leadership.

How are you currently leading the world towards the second Age of Enlightenment?

Immature persons, regardless of age, tend to live through images, dreams and habits rather than reality.  They may even present their images, dreams and habits as reality online, through various forms of editing and other manipulation.  They may even do so competitively.

Ethical living is authentically in touch with reality.

But what is reality in terms of ethics rather than ontology?

Does digital reality exist at all or is it an illusion, interpreted by the imagination to distort perceptions, like all media?

Is unmediated reality even possible, given the limitations of human perceptions and the prevalence of human biases?

How have you attempted to inform yourself about the harmonious interplay of beauty, understanding and magnificence, through your perceptions and through your imagination?

How much of that experience is associated with nature?

How much of that experience is associated with politics?

How much of that experience is associated with love?

Many people express themselves as individuals, or as couples, or as parents, or as members of small groups, or as employees, but rarely as part of nature.

How aware are you of the nature within yourself, and around you, and from which you have been made over billions of years, and even over the past few centuries?

How aware are you of the way culture has developed within you, and around you, and how it influences your views about everything, including nature, from its origins many centuries ago?

How aware are you of the ways in which mental difficulties, in yourself, and in other people, and between you and other people, have shaped your attitudes and beliefs and your choices in life?

What are your current feelings and how are you attempting to acknowledge them?

What do you prefer to share with other people and what do you prefer to keep to yourself, and why?

When, if ever, do you prefer to spend time alone, and why?

If you cannot cope with spending time alone, what makes you feel that way?

 

 

In various areas of Frugality Cottage, and in many other areas of the entirely digital Adelaidezone, much work has been conducted, over many years, to help you experience life both authentically and ethically, wherever you may exist in geographical terms at any particular moment.

This is obviously an unusual sort of cottage. 

How do you imagine it to be?

How does it look through your imagination?

How has it been constructed?

Which sounds and smells and textures do you associate with this location?

What is your awareness of its current temperature, its size and its shape?

How do you imagine its garden?

How do you imagine your future?

If you think you have a suitable key to the future, have you found a suitable door to unlock? 

Perhaps the door you require does not require a key, at least for the moment.



What have you discovered so far in this entrance about ethical living?

What did you discover about ethical living before your arrival here?

How useful or otherwise is your imagination when seeking to answer such questions honestly?

Of course, honesty is very important here.

What are your plans for your education in the days and weeks ahead, and why?

You may or may not currently have access to the resources and activities presented in the sitting room here, or in the attic or cellar or kitchens, even if you are one of the patrons.

Only patrons with sufficient experience of the workshops and projects here and of volunteering with frugality and authenticity and other expressions of suitability will have access to further possibilities and opportunities beyond those currently available to them.

How have you already been volunteering in relation to authentic living and ethical living, and where?

How clearly do you distinguish between your voluntary activities and your paid activities, and how do you ascertain the value to you, and to other people, of each?

How clearly do you ascertain the value of your various activities to other species?

How clearly do you prevent yourself from having conflicts of interest?

What have your experiences in the library here taught you about patronage options, and about expressions of philanthropy, particularly those made possible through good investments?

How do you usually acquire the knowledge and skills with which to help dismantle corrupt practices, including those associated with politics-as-usual and bureaucracy-as-usual and policing-as-usual and business-as-usual?

What do you already know about political philosophy?

What do you already know about political science and political sociology and political psychology, and how did you acquire that knowledge?

Perhaps you arrived here mainly for escapist reasons, thinking you could learn a few recipes and crafts as a way to comfort yourself when feeling stressed.

But how are you attempting to address the sources of the stress?

While the healthy management of situational stress and chronic stress is important, it is much the same as taking a medication to relieve a physical pain if the underlying cause(s) are ignored.

As with physical pain, sometimes the best way to treat psychological stress is with rest.

But what is healthy restfulness and what is not?

When, in fact, is restlessness quite healthy?

You may have noticed that the style of communication from Frugality Cottage takes several forms, some of which, as on this noticeboard, are presented very cautiously indeed.  This is obviously most necessary when interacting with strangers, possibly including those with no interest whatsoever in living in a truly ethical way.

The world is dangerous, both online and offline, primarily as a consequence of decisions and impulses associated with unethical persons.

Even non-strangers may be uninterested in living ethically, including family members.  They may even attempt to prevent you from living ethically, through various forms of psychological manipulations, including guilt trips.

How have you responded to the investment notes left for you in the library here over the past two years?

How have you responded to the additional educational notes there, and towards the various publications on display? 

If you have not responded, what has prevented you from doing so?

Perhaps you have been feeling unwell.

Perhaps you have been feeling overwhelmed.

Perhaps you have been having difficulty finding the right words.

Perhaps you have been grieving.

Perhaps you have been absorbed within the competitiveness of the unenlightened world.

Perhaps you do not know how to relate to the harmonious interplay of beauty, understanding and magnificence.

Investments take many forms but so do gambles.

How do you tell whether a particular risk is an investment or a gamble?

How do you ethics inform your approach to disharmony and other forms of conflict?

Perhaps you are feeling powerless, exhausted, confused, depressed and angry, or maybe your time is spent mainly in helping other people to overcome feelings of powerlessness, exhaustion, confusion, depression and anger.

Attempting to respond to other people's negative feelings is often unhealthy, even when providing therapeutic services for their benefit.

Attempting to respond to other people's seemingly positive feelings can also be unhealthy, especially when their enthusiasms are emotionally draining and excessive.

Perhaps you try to accommodate 'fans' in your life.

Perhaps you try to accommodate abusive family members in your life.

Perhaps you try to accommodate manipulative 'friends' in your life.

Perhaps you try to accommodate the demands of ruthless 'colleagues'.

Yet a truly ethical life cannot accommodate deliberate harmfulness.  It is a courageous response to injustices.  It values truth appropriately.  It values lives appropriately.  It attempts to shape a secure future by improving reality, not by ignoring unpleasant experiences but by facing up to the facts of unpleasantness and addressing the causes peacefully.

Without first becoming aware of your own, authentic self, it is impossible to live in a truly ethical way.

Perhaps you feel as though your authentic self disappears when you are unwell or otherwise stressed, yet your instinctive responses to ill health and other stressful situations are much more likely to reveal the real you than the person you pretend to be when feeling confident and contented.

Whether you like the real you or not is another matter entirely.

How do you usually think about ethics in relation to affection and self-esteem?

There is so much resentment, vindictiveness and spite expressed by cruel people.  If you have never been a victim of their horribleness, you are very fortunate indeed.  But what have you done to support victims and how are you helping to prevent future cruelty?

If you believe yourself to be a person of integrity, which principles do you always follow, and why?

Part Three in this series will appear here on Monday 7 March 2022, but will you have access?

Monday, 3 January 2022

Ethical Living - Part One

Welcome to a new year of explorations and investigations in and from Frugality Cottage.

As you may have noticed, the theme here this year is ethical living. 

The momentum to act substantially to restore stability to the Earth's climate system is unlikely to happen unless everyone co-operates reasonably.

The momentum to restore a semblance of normality to abruptly disrupted lives is unlikely to happen unless everyone co-operates reasonably.

What do you believe to be the basis of reasonable co-operation, and why?

The Council of Enlightenment has announced that the next update on this noticeboard is likely to be available to the ordinary public on the first Monday of February 2022.  Whether any notices will be available to the ordinary public after that time is yet to be announced.

What does the ordinary public know about ethical living?

What do you know about ethical living?

How will you be developing your leadership skills this year, and where?

How else will you invest your time this year?

What have you already discovered about investments in relation to ethical living?

The final important investment note to you is likely to be on the virtual bookshelf in the library here this afternoon.

The Council of Enlightenment is yet to announce how long you will continue to have access to the library.

Reasonable co-operation acknowledges that there are necessary limits to human volition.

What are you willing to acknowledge today, and why?

How do you intend your ethical leadership to progress this year, and why?

You are very fortunate that Frugality Cottage is still open to you.

How do you usually think about ethics in relation to frugality?

How do you ascertain quality in terms of necessity, ethics, aesthetics and value in various situations?

Specialist knowledge, like specialist interests, inevitable leads to biased points of view.

How do you attempt to overcome your own accumulation of biases?

What do you already know about biases and the problems associated with them?

How have you already been improving the ethics of your approach to crafts and other activities? 

What do you already know about Frugality Cottage as an ethical investment house?

How do you usually assess the performance of investments?

How peacefully and purposefully are you contributing to reasonably admirable prosperity?

How are your current investments reflective of virtue ethics, and how can you be sure?

How regularly do you usually consider important questions in relation to your ethics and your leadership?

What is your acquaintance with normative ethics? 

What is your acquaintance with comparative ethics?

What is your acquaintance with meta-ethics?

Are you sure you are willing and able to answer these questions honestly?

Are you already an impressively ethical investor in creatively non-violent/peaceful approaches wealth, health and wisdom?

Do you have a reputation as a well-informed philanthropist?

You are likely to be well aware, by now, that Frugality Cottage is open to the ordinary public mainly for philanthropic purposes.

How do you attempt to educate the public about ethical living, and from which location(s)?

Are you sure you are not a hypocrite?

How well do you consider suitability in relation to reasonableness?

If this is your first experience of Frugality Cottage, have you ever invested time in a virtual cottage before, anywhere else online, or elsewhere?

Are you sure you know the difference between spending time and investing time?

You are currently most welcome to tour the cottage and its garden virtually, in a suitably studious way, should you so desire, in accordance with your current privileges here.


 

 

 

How do you usually assess privileges in relation to ethical living?

How do you know when you have stepped outside your comfort zone?

What do you do to ease your discomfort in such circumstances?

How do you attempt to establish comfort zones for persons unable to find much comfort in their lives?


 



 

Frugality Cottage is a virtual comfort zone for truly ethical investors and philanthropists.

Have you completed the introductory tour here yet? 

If so, are you currently one of the patrons of the work conducted from here?

Are you a patron of the cottage itself?

Whether you are or not, how do you usually think about and express patronage in relation to ethical living?

What do you know about cultural practices in relation to ethical living?

Every tour is an investment for the participants in terms of time, and often in terms of money and discomfort.  Being somewhere unusual is always likely to involve discomfort.

Every tour is also an investment for the persons involved in organising and managing it.

How do you usually tour your own mind, and who usually helps to guide you, and why?

When tours are relatively expensive for any of the participants, those individuals are less likely to wish to leave the tour early, even if they are not enjoying the experience.  They will feel as though they will be losing money, or otherwise losing out, if they do so.

How long do you think an ethical tour should last, and why?

 

 

How much time have you allocated to thinking about ethical living today, and why?

How much time have you allocated to expressing ethical living today, and why?

How much time have you allocated to communicating your thoughts and experiences about ethical living today, and why, and where, and to whom?

 


How do you attempt to reconcile differences of opinion regarding what is ethical and what is not?

How do you attempt to resolve feelings of cognitive dissonance in your own mind?

Unfortunately, many people over-indulge themselves as a way to feel more comfortable, even when they are not on a tour.  They may even take risks if their minds become unreasonable for any reason.

How do you assess risks in terms of ethics?

Perhaps you are unsure whether any pleasure can be gained from the intelligent, suitably ethical expression of frugality, or any other expression of frugality for that matter. 

 

 

Many problems are caused by an inability to identify and remedy all the associated problems early enough.

People feel powerless even when they do identify problems early enough but cannot, for various reasons, act to remedy them.

This is may occasionally be evident when weather-related disasters occur.  Yet most people apparently believe such events will not happen to them.  They fail to examine history, nature, business and politics adequately enough before making investment decisions.

Deciding where to locate oneself, at any particular moment, is an investment decision.

You have decided to locate your imagination in Frugality Cottage at present.



Anyone with an inflated sense of entitlement, particularly in relation to other people, is likely to be dangerous.  They may initially seem pleasant, until they begin bullying.

No bullying is permitted here, as you are probably well aware by now.

How can you prove you are not a bully?

Bullies tend to view ethics entirely in terms of beneficial consequences for themselves.

What is your acquaintance with consequentialism?

What do you know about the history of mercenaries, psychopaths and sycophants?

How well do you judge character, and how do you know?

 

 

How well do you judge your own moral character, and how do you know?

How have you assessed your innate temperament?

What do you know about the development of your morals and your personality?

If you are hoping to become involved in the virtual volunteering from here, what are you able to offer and why do you wish to do so?


 

Trainee volunteers are often guided here through deontological ethics rather than virtue ethics.  No trainee is likely to have either the personal experience or theoretical knowledge or personal qualities to sustain a genuine, virtue-based approach to ethical living with adequate consistency until successfully completing the training.

For most people, the training process takes at least sixty years.  Perhaps you are seeking a more intensive training course.

What have been your experiences of comfort zones?

What have been your experiences of various climate zones and ecozones?

What have been your experiences of conflict zones?

What do you know about personality disorders and the dilemmas associated with them?

How do you usually attempt to address maladaptive behaviours in yourself and other people?

What have you discovered about the causes and consequences of persistent behavioural and emotional problems in people and their pets?

What do you know about the ethics of pet ownership?

What do you know about the ethics of parenting?

What do you know about your current emotional state?

What do you know about your current coping resources?

 

 

Perhaps you usually associate ethics with the development of ideals and idylls.

You may or may not usually think of ethics in terms of entropy and how to respond to it.

You may or may not think about ethical living in terms of authentic living, unless you are a competent practitioner of virtue ethics.



Authentic living was the main theme here last year, as you may be aware.

Truly ethical persons are always authentic, unless performing a role for artistic purposes.

Much preparatory work was conducted in and from Frugality Cottage in 2020 to ensure the experience of authentic living could most usefully and insightfully be experienced here last year.

 

 

All non-corrupt practices are based on good reasoning and appropriate ethics.

Corruption, by definition, is the absence of adequate reasonableness and adequate goodness.

Preventing corruption is the moral responsibility of everyone.

Do you usually think of morality and responsibility in terms of liminality?

Do you usually think about immorality and irresponsibility in terms of criminality?

If you have not yet caught up with the two years of preparations, you are likely to have much work to do, especially if you wish to become acquainted with the community in this digital vicinity. 

The community is certainly associated with liminality rather than criminality.  Its members are only interested in associating with reputably virtuous persons, not ordinary tourists and other strangers.

 


How do you know you have a reputation for virtue?

With whom do you have that reputation, and why?

How has your reputation been assessed from the library here, and by whom?

Who, if anyone, has tested your propensities in relation to good qualities and not-so-good ones?

How have you assessed yourself in terms of reasonableness, kindness, knowledge, aptitude, frugality, gullibility, hubris, compassion, leadership and liminality?

What have you discovered about virtue ethics through your studies of history? 

You may not think the history of human thought has any relevance to the future of good thinking and ethical living.

How have you documented the history of your own thoughts and experiences?

How have you documented the history of your moods, emotions and tastes?

How have you documented the history of your creativity and kindness?

How have you documented your plans for the future?

Frugality Cottage is virtually situated in the Adelaidezone, of course.  It is currently the only venue open to the ordinary public in this part of the Internet.  And it is only partially open to such persons.

How ordinary are you?

How do you think about ethics in relation to ordinariness?

The Adelaidezone is culturally, historically and geographically associated with the physical Australian city of Adelaide, at least for the moment.

Ethical living is not particularly easy in Adelaide, or anywhere else for that matter.  There is too much corruption in every physical human society.  There is also much incompetence, hence the highly advanced, extraordinarily elegant and relevant quaternary educational and training services provided here of both local and global suitability. 



How do you usually practice ethical living in relation to peace?

How do you usually practice ethical living in relation to gardens and dwellings and industries and creativity and kindness and competence?

How do you usually practice ethical living in terms of various important concepts?



The Council of Enlightenment, in accordance with the wishes of the Spirit of Enlightenment, has agreed to allow ordinary members of the public to maintain access to Frugality Cottage at least until the end of next month.

That, of course, is a very generous concession to your procrastination.

Perhaps you are here, at present, mainly as one of the many fans of the Spirit of Enlightenment, rather than through your own duties as an enlightened world leader.

The Spirit of Enlightenment and the Council of Enlightenment have a communitas approach to quaternary education. 

What is your approach?

The Spirit of Enlightenment first made her wishes known to the global public through initiating her Adelaidezone presence in early 2009.  She unexpectedly did so through the mind and fingers of a very ordinary suburban blogger.

The blogger had no prior awareness of the Adelaidezone or the Spirit of Enlightenment, or the Council of Enlightenment for that matter.  Fortunately, that person did have a prior awareness of ethical, authentic living, having developed that awareness over several decades, in various parts of the world.

You may associate investments mainly with probability rather than liminal beings, serendipity and magic realism.

What does your imagination tell you about your ethics?

What does your imagination tell you about your knowledge, your ignorance and your tastes?

You may not regard Frugality Cottage as adequately in accordance with your tastes in a visual sense, particularly whilst staring at its electronic manifestation on a technological screen.  You may even regard its visual presentation as more suited to the tastes of young children, like a gingerbread house.

Who or what has lured you to read this information, and why?

Perhaps you feel uncomfortable when liminal beings or young children are mentioned.

Perhaps you are currently in the company of one or more young children, demanding your attention or at least something sweet to eat or drink or otherwise experience.

 


There are no young children associated with the community here.  Nor are there any older children, adolescents or young adults involved for that matter.  Such persons lack the maturity and experience for quaternary learning, especially in terms of moral development.  They also, quite usually, have difficulties distinguishing between fact and fiction, hence their attractiveness to predatory marketeers and other predatory persons.

There is no marketing associated with Frugality Cottage in any way whatsoever.  You are likely have discovered this location mostly through serendipity, with or without the assistance of a liminal being.

Part two in this series is scheduled to appear here on the noticeboard in the early morning of Monday, 7 February 2022, Adelaide time.  Please prepare yourself properly for that experience.

Monday, 27 December 2021

Reflection

The volunteers and other patrons here are preparing for the year ahead.

Everything remains clean and fresh, as usual.

If you intend to join any of the activities here in 2022, how will you prepare for that privilege?

Monday, 20 December 2021

Next Year Here

If you are hoping to experience next year here in Frugality Cottage, please ensure you are registered in time as one of the patrons.

What have you already discovered about the cottage and visitors?

What have you already discovered about the cottage and patronage?

What have you already discovered about the cottage and volunteering?

What do you already know about the culture associated with this location?

Perhaps you are yet to be aware that the work here is devoted to intelligent frugality.  It involves cultural practices in keeping with respectable and responsible affluence, not impoverishment.

The culture and community here supports good health, in all its aspects. 



Historically cottages, by their very nature, were not built or decorated by design but evolved with their environment, and with changes in cultural practices.

Except in times of war, famine, epidemics and other disasters, for many centuries, most changes in most people's lives were relatively slow and predictable in comparison to those of the last fifty years.

You may consider cottages, including virtual ones, to be part of the cultural heritage of a community and/or region, reminding people of a comforting continuity with the past.

How well acquainted are you with various economic systems and other cultural systems in relation to peace and conflict? 

How do you prefer to explore the history of cultures, including emerging cultures, and why?

What do you know about cultural analytics, and how do you know it?

In different cultures, comfort is more or less associated with social experiences, depending on the context.

How would you describe a comfortable culture, from your own point of view?

How would you describe an uncomfortable cultural experience, and the associated emotions?

How do you ascertain whether a practice is appropriate and therefore adequately sensitive to needs and rights? 

How global is your attitude towards cultural practices?

What do you know about the cottage and time?

What do you know about the cottage and crafts?

Frugality Cottage exists within the Adelaidezone.

More specifically, Frugality Cottage exists as a small, ethereal, vernacular structure of unique and irreplaceable, intangible cultural heritage.  It is metaphorically located within a large virtual garden of sustainability, next to the Social Media Quadrangle in the Adelaidezone Digital Arts Quarter. 

How do you define existence?

How do you define Adelaide? 

What, if anything, do you own in relation to the Adelaidezone?

How do you usually assess matters in relation to ownership, and a lack of ownership?

Are you wondering whether it is worth your while spending time in the sitting room here over the next few minutes or hours or days or weeks or months or years?

Perhaps you are seeking to enter the kitchens.

What will you be seeking to know here next year, and why?

Monday, 13 December 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 50

Welcome to the final episode in this series.  Will it be grand, in your view, or quite plain and ordinary?

Will it provide an overview of the entire series and/or a surprising conclusion?

Will it include a progress report?

Will it present something to entice the patrons to want more?

Perhaps you have been expressing your authenticity this year mainly through your practical skills and/or social skills.

How do you intend to express it next year?

What have you been learning about yourself this year through the practice of various crafts?

Perhaps you have been learning about yourself mainly through gardening, cooking and possibly even through home renovations, or building a home.

 


How have you been learning about your interpersonal relationships this year, and what have you discovered about reality along the way?

What have you discovered about refreshing possibilities, and how?


Monday, 6 December 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 49

Welcome to the penultimate episode in this series.

The patrons are looking forward to experiencing your contributions.

When will those contributions happen, and where?

Perhaps all your episodes in this series are still in the pre-production phase.

Perhaps you are still wondering how best to express yourself authentically.

How has your home environment of the past year compared to your experiences here at Frugality Cottage?

Which of those experiences have you regarded as most authentically reflecting the real you?

What did you learn in and through the cottage last year to prepare you for this year?

And how are you already preparing for next year?

Do you usually associate authenticity with preparations or are you a more impulsive and haphazard sort of person?

Perhaps you have mainly had a focus on authenticity in relation to sustainability, and/or creativity, and/or kindness, and/or competence.

 


How have you attempted to fund each episode in your creative production, and how sustainably and successfully?

Whose money have you been using for each pre-production and production process?

Perhaps you have produced poetry and/or music in a podcast to express your authenticity.  But how much of your life is really and truly authentic, and suitably consistent?

Perhaps you have produced a blog or website or gallery exhibition of your photography to express your authenticity.  But does it truly show the everyday experience of being you?

Perhaps you have produced a play or film or vlog reflecting your experiences of authentic living.  But is that really an expression of naturalism rather than authenticity? 

How does the editing process affect the authentic expression of living creatively, sustainably, kindly and/or competently?


 

Have you ever associated authenticity with reality television?

Have you ever associated authenticity with income-earning activities or do you mainly think of authenticity in relation to non-income earning activities?

What is authentic about your real life, and how do you convey that authenticity through a series of shared insights?

Perhaps you do so with a slice of life approach, or not as the case may be.

Do you associate authentic living with vignettes or epics?

You may regard your authenticity as expressing a particular mood, or many moods.

 

 

When has your authenticity clashed with other people's beliefs, particularly in relation to political matters and other controversies?

Perhaps you would rather express your authenticity by ignoring conflicts rather than highlighting them.

Monday, 29 November 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 48

Are you well acquainted with authentic Adelaide?

Do you authentically uphold the public interest, in any part of the world?

Have you frequently conducted authentic investigations to uncover societal truth?

Do you genuinely enjoy storytime in the virtual library here?

Unless you are one of the registered patrons here, you may soon be unable to visit the library.

How can you prove you have been genuinely investing in simple living over the past few years?

What have been your most authentic experiences of investing in magnificent maturity?

The patrons genuinely hope you will virtually join them in the digital garden and in the relatively exclusive areas of the cottage quite soon.

 


Where have you presented your versions of earlier episodes in this series?

How have you assessed the characteristics of your audience?

And which industries did you encounter during the pre-production, production and post-production experiences?

How have you assessed industries in relation to authentic living?

 


In which format(s) are your episodes in this series presented, and why?

How have you developed the narrative of each episode in relation to the given themes?

How educational is each episode, and for whom?

 


If you have been providing an episode in this series each week for your audience, how long has each experience been, on average, and why?

How carefully have you considered privacy in each episode?

How carefully have you reflected on privacy in the private sphere, privacy in the public sphere, and privacy during community experiences?

How carefully have you incorporated the themes of the investment notes into each episode, as appropriate?

Monday, 22 November 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 47

Do you associate authentic living with a bohemian existence or a peasant existence or an indigenous existence or another type of existence?

Do you associate authentic living with political pleasantness?

Do you associate authentic living with public interest journalism?

You may associate cottages with peasants.

What do you know about the history of peasant foods?

Perhaps you are interested in learning more about the cottage and cookery.

 

 

How have you been thinking about food in relation to authenticity?

How have you been thinking about character in relation to authenticity?

 

 

Perhaps you associate cottages with witches.

What do you know about authenticity in relation to witchcraft, statecraft and other crafts? 

 


What have you discovered about intelligent frugality and liminality in relation to authenticity?


 

What do you know about deities in relation to authenticity and liminality?

What do you know about liminal deities in various past and present cultures?

Monday, 15 November 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 46

Do you associate living authentically with a storybook sort of life in a quaint and peaceful cottage, far away from the problems of the world?

Perhaps your idea of living authentically is entirely different from that scenario.

Perhaps you want to confront the world's problems directly.

Have you been reading the notes in the library here?

Monday, 8 November 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 45

As you have now reached episode 45 in this series, perhaps you are ready to give clear, honest answers to a few more questions.

For example, is your idea of authentic living quite dramatic or more like light entertainment or is it serious yet undramatic or is it simply peaceful and gentle without much triviality, drama or heavy seriousness?

Is much of your focus local or do you prefer a more global outlook?

Perhaps you are mostly interested in food and kitchens and cooking. 

Perhaps you especially enjoy growing food, or foraging for it.

 


You may be interested in learning more about the cottage and cookery.

 

 

But does your expression of authenticity ever reflect controversy?



How do you think about authenticity in relation to your dietary habits?

Perhaps you do not make the time to cook good food.

Perhaps you have other interests.

 

 

 

Monday, 1 November 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 44

How do you know your ideas about authenticity match reality adequately?

What have you discovered about the relationship between the cottage and peace in terms of reality?

What have you been learning about the cottage and simplicity in terms of authenticity?

You may think about this virtual cottage in various ways, possibly with the assistance of the guide.

How do you usually make comparisons to help you decide on the person you are meant to be?

How have you gathered knowledge and other resources to help you understand possibilities in relation to an Australian idyll or any other idyllic way of life?

 

 

While thousands, and possibly millions, of people allow strangers to observe accurate and/or inaccurate images of their private lives through screens, sensible people do not. 

There is a considerable difference between living privately and sharing knowledge and skills through community practices.

Community is a liminal experience between the public and the private.

 

 

How do you select the activities to share in privacy, in community and publicly?

What are the activities you will to experience virtually, vicariously or in other ways here? 

 


A life observed through a screen is not a real life.  It is an edited performance, no matter how real it may seem.  It is merely a fragment of a life, and possibly a work of fiction.

Monday, 25 October 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 43

If you wish to retain access to at least a small part of Frugality Cottage, there are several ways to do so.

What, if anything, do you consider to be special about Frugality Cottage, and why?

Answering that question will provide you with possible merit when seeking to enter here in future.

How do you usually attempt to access peace?

Monday, 18 October 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 42

Authenticity is most healthily expressed through interpersonal compatibility.

Differing personalities are often incompatible in their expectations of situations, and in their appreciation of peace.

If you do not seek more peace in your life, why not?

If you do not help other people to find more peace in their lives, why not?

Perhaps you express your authentic self easier online than in other contexts.

What have you been learning about the cottage and peace in your explorations here?

Are you sure you have a peaceful investment strategy?

Truly useful cultural capital does not require much economic capital or social capital or even talent.  It requires the determination to identify, develop and maintain an authentic identity, respectfully and responsibly.

How, then, is your acquired cultural capital consistent with your personality, your personal needs, and your preferred cultural identity? 

What do you know about personality psychology?

Monday, 11 October 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 41

Perhaps you would prefer to regard authenticity as being similar to the rediscovery and recovery a long-lost landscape and even a long-lost landscape garden.

Perhaps you would prefer to regard authenticity as a restored and restorative dwelling place. 

If you are mainly seeking to satisfy your curiosity at present, how will you know when it has been satisfied?

How do you tell whether any investment, investor, patronage or patron is genuinely devoted towards a worthy cause or not?

How do you try to ascertain whether investors and/or patrons are hypocrites?

Who is a good investor and who is not, in your view, and how do you know?

Perhaps you associate abundance with wastefulness and extravagance.

How can you be sure you are not wasting your time here?

How do you usually express your authenticity if not through your patronage experiences, whether as a supplier of patronage or as a recipient?

Do you usually take information at face value or do you seek evidence?

Perhaps you are usually too busy to seek evidence.

Perhaps you often fail to assess whether evidence is authentic or not.

What do you currently know about necessary journeys and unnecessary ones, and how do you know it?

What do you currently know about necessary expenditure and unnecessary purchases, and how did you acquire that knowledge?

Do you think there is ever any point in investing in the past? 

Why do you do so little to support economic systems based on intelligent frugality instead of greed?

How do you know your investments in fun do not encourage and possibly even exacerbate corruption?

Do you have a relatively high standard of living?

If so, how was it acquired?

Regardless of your standard of living, how are you currently investing in appropriately high standards?

How well are you investing in quality of life, and how do you know?

How often do you think about the relationship between knowledge and quality of life?

What is wonderful about you, really and truly, and who is qualified to verify that claim?  

How do you usually explore imaginations, including your own?  

How do you usually explore motivations, including your own?

What has motivated you to experience this episode of Authentic Living?

How do you know you have been truly wonderful and kind on a daily basis over the past few months?

What do you believe to be appropriate cultural practices, and how do you promote and protect them?

How do you prevent inappropriate cultural practices? 

What do you produce, and why, and when?

What do you know about childhood development in humans?

How do you reflect upon your own development as a person?

How do you distinguish between development and decline, if at all?  

How do you distinguish between the development and decline of people, places, purposes and possibilities?

Any permanent or semi-permanent dwelling, other than a cave or rock shelter, is probably unsuitable for a well-informed life on the move from one food source to another.

Building and maintaining a permanent or semi-permanent dwelling would probably be a waste of time and other resources when local food and/or water supplies are absent. 

How do you usually try to understand people's needs and wants, including your own?  

How do you assess the quality of your ongoing investments in relation to heritage, in both its natural and cultural varieties? 

How do you know whether you can afford to pay a premium price for a premium product or high quality experience?

How do you know when a place is special?

How do you know when a resources is valuable?

How do you know when an opportunity is wonderful?

How do you examine moral values in relation to economic values?

Where and how do you usually learn about value, and from whom?

What do you value, and why?

Who do you value, and how? 

Perhaps you do not reflect upon such questions particularly deeply, even when thinking about the meaning of authentic living.

What do you already know about your authentic expressions of wisdom, and how did you gain that knowledge?

How consistent or otherwise are your expressions of wisdom?

How carefully do you define the meaning of free products, free services, free access and free societies?

How carefully do you assess the intentions of the suppliers of free access to a place, a resource and/or an opportunity?
Whenever you are overly excited or overly anxious, you are unlikely to have the ability to express wisdom.
 
Whenever you are overly tired or overly depressed, you are unlikely to have the energy to express wisdom.
 
Indeed, adequate calmness and adequate rest are necessary before the expression of wisdom can occur.

When feeling unwell, adequate calmness and rest are absolutely necessary for a relatively natural recovery, along with suitable nutrition and well-informed kindness.

How do you invest in natural certainties?
 
How do you invest in cultural certainties?

How have you invested in certainty at various times in your life?

How will you make decisions in relation to achieving future access here?

Perhaps you do not value access to this location highly enough.

How authentic is your approach to caution?

How authentic are your expressions of respect?

How authentic is your approach to money?

When do you know that claims of economic conservatism are inauthentic?

When do you know that claims of economic conservatism are cruel?

How do you prefer to seek help in answering your questions?

How do you identify unkind people and other nuisances and seek to exclude them from your life as reasonably as possible?

How do you identify the wonderful in people and seek to include those individuals in your experiences of life as reasonably as possible?

Monday, 4 October 2021

Authentic Living - Episode 40

Have you reached the age of 40 and possibly lived beyond it?

If so, do you regard yourself as fortunate?

If you have not yet reached the age of 40, how do you imagine your life when you reach that immensely important age?

Regardless of your current age, if you already have an authentic identity, it will be consistent with your natural characteristics rather than the expectations formerly imposed upon you through other people's cultural practices.

The wise expression of authenticity is conveyed through carefully considered moral choices.

Each week, since the beginning of the year, you have had a chance to experience the outline of each episode in this important series.

The responsibility for filling out that outline into something more substantial has been your own, in accordance with all reasonable and relevant laws and courtesies.

How have you been investing in thorough assessments this year?

How do you usually assess needs in relation to investing?

How do you usually assess trustworthiness in relation to investing?

How do you tell the difference between a door, a lock and a handle?

How do you tell the difference between a key, a guide and a product of nature?

Have you been wondering what to do about your most disastrous investments in travel, tourism and the mass media?

Have you been wondering what to do about your other disastrous investments, speculations and gambles?

Have you made any appreciative comments on any of the investment notes carefully produced and presented in the library here for your philanthropic benefit?

How do you know your expectations here are neither unrealistic nor cruel?

Good investments always require clear distinctions between one thing or person and another.

Have you ever contributed to the destruction of a much-loved world by increasing the likelihood of catastrophic events immensely detrimental to it?

Have you ever knocked down a much-loved cottage, or even an entire village, in order to build an airport runway, or a holiday resort, or a grand hotel, or a car park,or to participate in the latest trends in landscaping, road building, power generation, mining, shopping developments, sporting facilities and/or water storage?

How do you usually assess the effectiveness of your investments?

How do you invest in understanding your emotions?

Do you consider yourself to have high standards?

If you have direct investments in businesses, what is most worthy about those businesses, and your investments in them?

How well have you offloaded your unethical investments and other unethical sources of income?

Are you a successful investor in socially and environmentally responsible practices?

Do you know how to tell the difference between a patron and an investor?

You will probably already be aware that there is no point in raising funds for unworthy pursuits.

How do you usually assess worthiness?

Investments are not necessarily associated with competition.

 

 

There are many different ways to assess value.

Do you consider your acquisition of knowledge to be a pleasure or a burden?

 

 

How do you usually measure relative intelligence?

How do you usually measure adequate thoughtfulness?

How do you attempt to combine such measures?

Have you recently taken a virtual tour around Frugality Cottage and its ethereal garden?

 

 

Are you adequately acquainted with the EverTime?

Do you consider authentic living to be mostly related to time or place or purpose?

Perhaps you associate authenticity with history.

Perhaps you would prefer your life to be an accurate re-enactment of a particular time in history, possibly from a specific socioeconomic, political, cultural and/or geographical perspective.

Is your acquaintance with history mainly a reflection of epistemology, ethics, aesthetics or metaphysics? 

How do you prefer to acknowledge, and reflect upon, episodes of authenticity within your own mind and in your experiences of the world?

When have you experienced episodes of authentic living in your life experiences?

When have you experienced authentic interpersonal relationships, and how do you know?

In which climates do you prefer to be outdoors?

Perhaps you prefer staying indoors.

Do you usually associate authenticity with tragedy or comedy or neither?

When, if ever, have you attempted to restore the authentic you?

How do you know your curiosity about anything is adequately connected to your intelligence? 

How do you usually think about curiosity in relation to authenticity?

Perhaps you have rarely reflected upon such questions, at any time, in any place.

Perhaps you would prefer to think of authenticity as making your physical existence to be the place and time for authentic experiences of timeless wisdom, possibly through the harmonious interplay of beauty, understanding and magnificence. 

If you are new here, please catch up with this series as soon as you can.

Here are the outlines of the earliest episodes:

 

 

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