The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room. Blaise Pascal, Pensées.
I am sitting in a grocery store that specializes in gourmet food, and it is as much a restaurant as it is a store. I can walk over to the vitrine, and order a meal fit for a king. I can't go to the wine cellar and order a glass of Cabernet fit for a king, but the newest Papa Joe's is set up as a restaurant, and there I can. So, my reader, you have guessed that I am outside my quiet room and being worldly, and it is outside my room that unhappiness can seize me. I am writing on a laptop, taking advantage of wireless offered free at Papa Joe's.
I have passed more hours in my quiet rooms that expected. Since arriving home from California, I haven't turned out of my door before noon. It is really getting in the way of making any progress in life. I have taken to calling myself a bum. I have read from many of the books left on my coffee table weeks ago, what I was reading before I drove off to California. How exactly did Pascal propose for one to live inside a set of quiet rooms? Blaise had mathematics, science and theology to amuse him. I am hooked on seeing and touching and talking. I guess I'll have to reduce all my amusements to symbols, and work with them on the blank page, reducing reality to a tabula rasa that I sully with symbols. I'm betting this is an excellent opportunity to take up a renewed study of chess.
I am certain Blaise arranged for his meals to be brought to him. Papa Joe's can help me here, and I quote one of the hanging signs: Chef William Hall cheffed in Asia, cheffed to the stars at Pine Knob, cheffed at Epcot, and even apprenticed with a real French chef. After 28 years of cheffing, let him be your chef. He's good. Why cook? We cater. At a significant expense, I can have my meals driven to my door. But that means I don't succumb to temptation on the way to a restaurant, or make a fool of myself as I pursue the affections of waitresses and female patrons I meet there.
I'm a lousy housekeeper. I am betting Blaise arranged for chamber service weekly, if not daily. If I have my meals brought in, I assume I could send the plates back dirty. Or I could eat upon disposible plates with fungible sporks. If one stays in ones room, one could lounge about in the buff, but that's only fun if one has sun and water and company. Since it's pleasant to dress in a good shirt and trousers and then read on the couch, I'm going to need laundry assistance. Like Blaise, I could arrange for a dry cleaner to drop off clean shirts and male furnishings and pick up soiled articles. I'm wondering if Blaise had dry cleaning available, but no matter. The number of poor people willing to iron linens with hot rocks in the 1600 was probably beyond count.
So although it is expensive, I have made arrangement for meals, for clothes and for housecleaning. Why do I need to exit my lair? Well, the expenses of self-contained life requires income. That's no problem if I can find an employer who allows me to telecommute. With a cell phone in one hand and a laptop between my elbows, I'll take advantage of the Pascal programming language and a whole list of computer protocols and technologies. I guess Blaise was already thinking of telecommuting when he wrote this famous pensee.
So the food, money and clean clothes are coming in the door. The sticky plates, good checks and stinky socks are going out the door. I'm surrounded by my quiet walls writing computer code and treatises. After a few days of this, I'm surely bound to experience loneliness. I am betting Pascal knew how to throw a salon, inviting a dozen or so bright young men and women to pat about a few theories for an evening. I think I could manage a film night with the assistance of NetFlix . I should not hazard to propose any idea that could be examined philosophically for the purpose of entertaining guests.
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