How do you say, “In this moment, I am content”?
En este momento, estoy contento/a…
oh, wait, thats Spanish…
Noum speakumus latiunus…sorryum!
This is a great quote. Something to keep in mind, particularly for me, at this point. I am having some great difficulties at my place of work, and I’ve only been here for about six months. It’s so bad, this weekend I need sometime to reflect to figure out if I can/should make a change.
OK- sorry, Dale, I’m not trying to thread-jack, I really did this to say how great I think the quote is.
Tom
So true. I have been a bit closer to contentment than usual lately, mostly because my nervous responses are slowing with age and I just am not as excitable. Not over-reacting goes a long way towards feeling contentment, especially at the end of the days. Less psychodramas…
Also, I have learned that one of the greatest sources of my personal frustration derive from living and thinking in terms of “the cult of impending perfection.” Working on a newspaper, on the graphic side, having played classical music for years has led to a constant push for perfection and expectation. This translates to being hyper-critical of others and pushing them away in so doing…
Learning how to swallow mediocrity and incompetence by others within my sphere and realizing that my own expectations are my personal form of incompetence helps, too.
I’ve often told my boys that my job - as a parent - is to help them become happy, self sufficient adults. Not to be what I want them to be, but to be what they want to be. I’ve said that I don’t care if they dig ditches or get a PhD, as long as they are happy in whatever they choose to pursue.
I do get on them, but not because of something they aren’t, usually because of something they don’t do that they are more than capable of. I’ve never insisted on straight As, but I do insist that they complete all assignments (and with a child that’s ADD, this is NOT an easy task). I’ve offered to help with schoolwork, or with career options, etc - but they must do the actual work.
This comes from having a parent that has NEVER been happy with anything I’ve ever done in my life. It no longer effects me - I long ago learned to accept that fact and live my life for myself. Most of the time, I can honestly say I am happy in my life, and satisfied with how things have gone and how things are going.
Great page. More good ones as you scroll down too…
This idea is always sort of hard for me. My response is usually “But shouldn’t I have to earn respect for myself just as I have to earn it from others? So why should I accept myself just because I am me? If I know I should be doing things to carry my fair share of the load that I am not doing, why should I accept a shirker? If I’m a jerk (or whatever word would apply), wouldn’t it show poor judgement to accept myself?”.
I’m not saying I think I’m evil incarnate or anything, but I guess most of us have some things we could improve on. I can’t separate the needing to improve idea from the accepting idea somehow.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt
Thanks. Bob Patrick writes these and I host & blogify them. I’m proud to be a small part of it.
Dale
The condemn what they do not know…at least I think that’s what it is.
Yeah, they condemn what (or because) they do not understand.
I like this one…“Aliud vinum, aliud ebrietas.”
Wine is one thing,drunkenness is something else.
“contentus” (boy)
“contenta” (girl)
if you want to be a bit obvious or medieval about it, you can say:
“contentus sum” (boy)
“contenta sum” (girl)
(adding “sum” would have seemed pointlessly verbose to a classical Roman, unless it wasn’t clear that you were refering to yourself.)
That’s enough to express “at the moment.” But if you want to emphasize it you can add “nunc” for now (“nunc contenta” - now I am content (girl)). That implies that you weren’t before, but have arrived at contentment. You can also add “hodie” for today (hodie contenta - today I am content (girl)), which is a bit more poetic and implies that contentment is fickle: here today gone tomorrow. There are other ways to literally translate “at the moment” but I shouldn’t recommend them.
Mirabile visu! …and contentment is indeed wealth. I’m approaching it closely when I make one of my infrequent scans of the pub & find latin in the thread titles.
Is this forum embracing & extending such that I no longer need to visit Rogue Classicism? All my vices in one place? That would be truly Roman in its decadence.
The only thing missing for complete rapture would be a thread on classical rhetoric, the importance of enthymemes in Aristotle’s Poetics, and a full online reprint of “The Garden of Eloquence” - oh, wait, that’s already online at Perseus.
Thank you Dale!
sacra fama literarum… 
I think discontent can be constructive sometimes: weak points may be improved because of it. Of course, the legitimacy of perceived weak points is all in the eye of the beholder, but you can’t improve your whistle playing technique, for instance, without wanting to be better, and the same goes for human relations. I can’t be content with either example in my own life as they stand, which isn’t to say I need to beat myself up for my shortcomings. It’s just that there’s further to go, always.
I think maybe that’s helpful way to look at it, Nano. Since every human being presumably has further to go, then no individual is alone in his or her failings. So I would have to accept that I, as a human being, am like this. Maybe looking at it that way would make one feel compassion for one’s little struggles in the universe rather than feeling enmity for a sub-perfect self. Maybe that more positive compassion coming from acceptance would help one to go further than the negative enmity coming from lack of acceptance. This doesn’t really have anything to do with what Nano said, does it.
Hmmm. Well, I still think I just need a good kick in the rear basically. 
I don’t know, Cynth…what you just mentioned I see as the other side of the coin. Acceptance is a way to avoid neuroses (no psychologist, here, but it makes sense to me). It’s all a balancing act for me, not an all-or-nothing game. Having nothing but discontent sucks; indiscriminate acceptance (other than the reality of the situation) is laziness. Both keep each other to healthy levels, I think.
But that’s just me.
Oh, are you speaking of moderation? Hmmm. I will have to give that some thought. I think perhaps you have hit the nail on the head. From one who is a famous all-or-nothinger. 