The Idyllicist

Studying wisdom of the past to build a better future

  • Under the Sun

    By

    “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 1:9

    Two days ago, I finally finished another journal. Journal Vol. VII clocked in at 64 entries and 35,197 words, spanning 938 days. A lot has happened in those 938 days, and a lot has changed.  

    I have been journalling for almost nine years now, with a one-year break during my senior year of high school. With every new entry, my opinion that journalling is an absolute necessity in life is more and more solidified. It isn’t just therapeutic – it’s insightful. 

    I started my first journal on February 24, 2017, in the middle of seventh grade. Around February 2023, when I was in the middle of Journal Vol. VI, I decided to start digitizing all my journals in case I ever lost the physical copies. As much as I cringe at some of my early writing, it demonstrated to me once again just how important it is to remember the past. 

    Not only was I reminded of several memories – both good and bad – when rereading my old journals, but to my surprise, I was able to pick out early warning signs of what would later emerge as my struggles with depression and anxiety. I was fairly social until the end of junior high – though I would still have considered myself an introvert back then – but in my entry from December 21, 2017, was a passage where I lamented how lonely I felt and wondered if I truly did have any meaningful friendships. I had a strange feeling that 2018 would be a difficult year as well, and I had no memory of writing that down until I reread it years later. 2018 was indeed a difficult year — my best friend passed away, and nearly all my other friends quickly showed their true colors. 

    In my entry from February 3, 2018, I recounted what was very clearly my first panic attack just four days prior. I didn’t know this at the time, but the symptoms I described were exactly what I experience with panic attacks now. Once I did realize that what was happening to me were panic attacks, I sought out therapy and got medicated, and they have been under relative control ever since. 

    In my entry from August 6, 2019, I wrote about how I had been bullied for so long that I was starting to believe the awful things my bullies were saying about me and to me. Years later, I was given this wonderful piece of advice: “Don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t take advice from.” I passed that pearl along to my younger brother about a month ago. Last weekend, we were at a late-night dinner together, and we were talking about our experiences in high school. I mentioned my struggles with depression, both past and current, and how hearing the same awful things every day starts to take a toll on your psyche. So, my brother quoted that great piece of advice back at me, and I couldn’t help but smile. 

    I don’t think this is quite exactly what the author of Ecclesiastes meant when they wrote, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” But trying to figure out exactly what these ancients meant with their words is not the point of this space – it’s to apply that wisdom to the modern day. 

    They say the only constant thing in this life is change. That has some merit, but it is also astounding how much history repeats itself. They also say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Humans have always been the same — you can find graffiti thousands of years old, lewd jokes written on old walls, a child’s doodles on a piece of wood. 

    And even though it may seem like depression and anxiety are more rampant now than ever, I assure you this is not the case. People are simply more comfortable discussing those things once dubbed taboo. Discussion of these things furthers the conversation not just for the people engaged in it now, but for countless others in the future. 

    While it may seem useless to know these things only after they have occurred, knowing what your own experiences have been and revisiting them from a different perspective can be instrumental in helping others. After my friend died at the end of eighth grade, I struggled for a long time trying to find some meaning in it. I watched a lot of Christian lecturers back then, and one of them said that bad things happen to prepare you to help other people through the same experiences. Of course, that does nothing to solve the problem of evil, but it was still quite a realization for me. 

    I decided to make sure I was prepared for if and when a similar situation would happen to someone else sometime in the future, and as awful as that whole experience was, it has certainly helped others in an indirect way.

  • But That’s Just My Opinion

    By

    “If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth by which no man was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and ignorance.” – Meditations 6.21

    Opinions are funny things. Everyone has them, but no one has the same ones. It is today as it was thousands of years ago, and probably as it will be thousands of years from now – you and a peer may have ninety-nine of the same opinions, but the hundredth has the potential to make you mortal enemies.

    Those who know me know that I can be quite opinionated. It’s for a reason – if I have my mind made up about something, I feel strongly about it. I have always had strong opinions, and often those opinions have gotten me in some bitter debates. This has been a trend for more than a decade, but I was not always on the side I am now.

    I consider myself progressive, but there was a time when I was one of the most conservative young men you could find. I was proud of what I thought I knew, and I cast empathy aside in favor of cruelty disguised as logic and reason.

    I was young and naive – just twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old – but I was convinced I had peaked in my emotional development. This self-righteousness never exists on its own – there are always consequences to those who must bear its heavy burden. My faith in the Lord and myself meant more than any other relationship I was a part of at the time.

    Then something broke all that confidence – a handful of people took a chance on me. They slowly dragged me out of the pit of misery and hatred I had dug for myself, and over the course of roughly a year – coinciding nicely with the first several months of the pandemic – I re-evaluated every belief I held dear.

    I remember clearly that, when I was just entering adolescence, I confidently told those around me that I would happily change my mind if they could persuade me to with a convincing argument based on logic and reason. Looking back, I think I did accept the possibility that I could be proven wrong, but the door to that possibility was locked shut by a lot of misplaced self-righteousness.

    Six years later, I often struggle to remind myself that these things I find abhorrent in the world, and especially in my country, I once would have supported. Now this begs the question of if that handful of good people had not taken a chance on me, or if happenstance caused that I never met them to begin with. What then? Would I have figured it out on my own eventually, or would I have grown to be what I hate now?

    I believe this is why I still bother engaging in these sorts of debates, as frustrating as they often are. In everyone who “abides in his error and ignorance,” as Marcus Aurelius wrote, I see a bit of myself. It isn’t lost on me that I could still be wrong about the things I believe now, and that my mind might be changed in the future, but my current beliefs are built on much more solid moral ground than those of the previous decade.

    Still, it is ironic that I am so firm in my beliefs now, especially when compared to those of my younger self. I often joke that if my younger self knew what he would become, he would have gone insane. The difference now is in what my beliefs are predicated on, what Marcus Aurelius meant when he wrote, “I seek the truth by which no man was ever injured.”

    This truth is that of the common good, that which is in the best interest of humanity. This is why I don’t subscribe to the idea that there are no “incorrect” opinions. Now if one person’s favorite color is blue, and another’s is green, neither of them hold an incorrect opinion. But when morality is on the line and livelihoods are at stake, someone who acts against the common good is manifestly incorrect.

    But we live in an era where, despite all our progress, the sanctity of human life is still conditional. In this country, it is largely dependent on your opinions, and those who tout empathy and inclusion are being marked for death by those whose hearts are iced over.

    Many of those who appear evil are simply misled and misguided. They have fallen prey to some religion or some politics that validate a primal hatred cultivated by the movers of society. I know this, and I believe this, because I was once in that snare. It only took a few good people to dismantle that apparatus and set me free.

    Undoubtedly though, there are plenty of truly evil people. Maybe they pray for you on Sunday, but on Monday, they’re ready to end your life. I want to believe most people aren’t like this, but it is difficult with the current climate. I harbor no judgement for anyone who has severed ties over such fundamental differences, but it is extraordinarily difficult for me to do such a thing.

    A professor and role model of mine once told me that empathy can be cultivated in anyone, and I am trying to internalize that as much as possible. I still believe most minds can be changed with the right approach. I’m fairly firm in that opinion at the moment, but time may tell if it changes.

  • Hello and Welcome!

    By

    One common thread throughout human history is a longing to build a better world. We have thousands of years’ worth of religion and philosophy all attempting to uncover the core of human existence and purpose. 

    Yet we live in one of the most turbulent moments in recent history. 

    My name is Dylan Hembrough. I’m a writer, a student of pharmacy, and a lover of all things philosophy and religion. I’m twenty-two years old at the time of this writing, but I’ve seen enough of what this world has to offer to know that something is deeply and fundamentally wrong. Heinous atrocities are being carried out in what was once a free society by people who profess to represent a god of love and forgiveness as his most devout and pious disciplines. 

    It’s no wonder so many feel forced to abandon a system of beliefs they knew from birth, and often with little direction forward. I am among those people, and I hope to contribute something new and unique from these experiences. 

    My aim here is to analyze wisdom of the past to put the present into perspective and build a better future. I have read a number of sacred and philosophical texts by now, and though one’s journey in knowledge is never finished, I feel comfortable sharing what I have gleaned from these texts with others. 

    For the sake of transparency, know that I will be analyzing these texts through the lens of the system of beliefs I have built up over the past few years. Of course, no one possesses all the answers, but many minds are greater than their sum. 

    The core of faith, to me, is the soul. Not just the spirit, but the personality, the desires, and most importantly the mind of each individual all constitute their whole. I call this the fith – the ultimate core and center of being that emanates from reality. Everyone has one, and it is more or less imperishable. They move on to a life after death, where they exist as ghosts. It’s our job to keep their memories and legacies alive here, especially those of our ancestors. We are their continuation, in a way. 

    I do believe in a God – not an all-powerful and all-knowing one, but one that permeates everything and everyone. God is reality, more or less, and we are all a part of it together. Each of our minds are small slivers of this ultimate Mind. What I have settled on are three essential beams of living well, those being truth, curiosity, and character. There are certain mystical aspects to my beliefs as well, but those aren’t relevant right now. 

    I also believe that no one religion, philosophy, or system of beliefs can claim moral exclusivity. I do believe there is an overarching “Moral Law” that we should abide by, but that morality is a natural consequence of our common humanity, not an external force’s arbitrary command. Religion should be a choice and an individual experience, not a means by which to control the masses. 

    I embarked on a journey almost two years ago to explore and develop my spirituality through a series of poems. One verse stands out as the core of my beliefs: “The only distinction that matters in regards to my compatriots is their regard for humanity.”

    It is our humanity that binds us together and propels us forward along the arrow of progress. What’s beautiful about humanity is how wonderfully diverse it is, and these are things we should cherish and celebrate. To deny one’s identity is to deny their humanity. In an ideal world, this would be the one trait that is absent from humanity. 

    This is the lens through which we will be analyzing the vast tomes of ancient wisdom from across the world. We have the benefit of thousands of years of knowledge to apply to our modern day in order to build a better, kinder, and more peaceful future. Hate will not be tolerated here, and I want to make that clear now. 

    But, for those who are interested in religion and philosophy, those who are currently deconstructing, and those who may disagree, I extend a heartfelt welcome to all of you. 

    In a world full of hate, let this be a sanctuary of love.