Lists, Aristotle's vice of excess and deficiency, Birth, Death

I think the list format is efficient and fun for getting a lot of happenings and flavor to you without a lot of text, which is perhaps good for both of us. So here's another one.

The past two weeks:

Found out that one of my closest teachers/friends from my graduate program died last year of cancer. Goodby Terri, your passion, compassion, and insight lives on in my mind and heart.

Close friends just had their second baby. Name: Gaia.

More than most things, I feel like birth and death mark the passage of time powerfully. There is a reality to it. Something significant has changed. Strong emotions are interwoven into the event. Hope, wonder, celebration, grief, reflection.

I'm working on balance in work and having fun. Previously I was fairly all or nothing, working for months without a real break and then binging fun things for days on end. This approach is not the most healthy, though it does avoid the difficulty of starting something fun and then having to stop it. But I think it's time to improve that ability.

Makes me think of the psychological concept of "hot brain, cool brain." In brief, we have two modes of functioning. Hot brain wants rewards and enjoyment now, and doesn't think about future repercussions, it is emotional. Cool brain sees the future results of our actions, it plans and delays gratification, it keeps us from being impulsive. Both are important. A life with no play, with no enjoying of the present moment, is a bit sterile and cold. A life without thinking of the future and pushing through difficulties for some worthwhile goal, is shallow and often full of regret.

Which makes me think of another concept I heard that I really love. It comes from Aristotle via Brian Johnson (he runs "Optimize")
The vice of excess and deficiency:
It goes like this: every good quality/activity has a certain balance, the "right amount," or balanced application. If you have too much or too little, if you apply it without common sense and balance, the goodness becomes badness. Like the idea that the difference between medicine and poison is dosage (and I'd add, context)
For example: Enthusiasm: good when balanced. When too little, it's depression or apathy. When too much, it might be mania, overzealousness, or burnout.
Another example from my community: Meditation. Right amount: awareness, peace, focus. Not enough: stress, 'noise', superficiality. Too much: escapism, ungrounded, physical deterioration.

Pretty much anything you think of as a virtue or something good, would benefit from being run through this excess/deficiency algorithm to keep it in the healthy, balanced zone. Though what that is will vary from person to person.

I have more to list, but I've got two weeks to make up, so I'll continue this on another post.