Resonare Illustrationis: Episode 1 Goethe and Completeness transcript

#1 Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Howdy, and welcome to the Plutarch Project Podcast’s latest and greatest addition to our media repertoire  “resonare illustrationis”- a brief illuminating look at a piece of literature, history, or philosophy to fill the gaps between our longer form podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe and share if you find yourself sponging what we are spilling! 

17th and 18th century German, Statesman, artist, writer and philosophical thinker Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe and a few of his musings will be today’s topic. Among more than 10,000 pieces of writing left behind by Goethe are a few fragments relating to someone being complete and how this completeness can help one to be successful in the world.

Quoting Goethe here, “In Botony there is a species of plant called incompletea ; and just in the same way it can be said that there are men who are incomplete and imperfect. They are those whose desires and struggles are out of proportion to their actions and achievements” (Goethe #17)

This is probably all of us at some time or another. Each of us desiring to reach for the stars when we haven’t even begun to design our own spaceship with crayons and paper. How many of us reach for those dreams singing Bruno Mars’ “I wanna be a Billionaire….” without actually attempting to put in the effort and earn it? Taking a look at your own life where have your desires and struggles gotten in the way of your action, causing you to leave some activity or some self-benefitting experience incomplete?

Goethe continues writing, “It is only men of practical ability, knowing their powers and using them with moderation and prudence, who will be successful in worldly affairs” (Goethe 19)

Goeth thinks that only men who know what they are capable of, who know their strengths and can apply them cautiously, a key word here that we will get back to in a moment, can find and earn success in the world. Goethe himself produced a massive amount of work in his lifetime and seemed to find and capitalize on his skills at a fairly early age. Heck, by 25 he was a celebrity known for his literary capabilities. But, what about the bit relating to prudence and moderation? 

Without caution a person may flaunt their skills, stamping out their ability to find an apt audience, customer, friend or even lover with fire passion of their own self flattery. In the midst of this frenzy a future filled with dreams to be acquired could evaporate overnight. In modern parlance, most people can’t afford to be an audacious show off. Not too many people are skilled enough to be show offs, and even those that are will face father time’s limitations in the end. To sum this up use your talents in such a way that they are noticed, but don’t flaunt them in ways that could ruin your future. Now how about moderation?

How many of us give away our talents on a whim? It might be easier if we jumped ahead to fairly recent times. Borrowing from a modern example, Christopher Nolan’s 2008 film  The Dark Knight–a superhero movie featuring Christian Bale as Batman, has a moment in which Heath Ledger’s character The Joker says something along the lines of, “If you’re good at something never do it for free.” Think about that for a sec. How many times have you, or people you’ve known, given away their talent for nothing but a smile, heck sometimes even less than that! Now, I don’t think Goethe is saying you should always charge a fee, particularly to your friends for borrowing your truck, your muscles, or your brain, but rather that you should be careful with how you manage your time and talent in the marketplace. Embrace your talent, but don’t hand it out like you’re the infamous multimillionaire boxer Floyd Mayweather handing out dollar bills to strippers. Reserve your talent and let the market add value to it by making it a bit of a commodity. Think about it, if you’re always getting something with little or no effort and free how much respect do you have for it? How much value does it really have? Imagine for a moment that the oxygen is sucked out of the room you’re in, how much more valuable does a can of air become to you in that very moment. The same is true of your talent and skill; use it wisely with the future in mind and use it sparingly enough to maintain its value.

Goethe sums all of this up in today’s final fragment stating, “It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less than one is worth.” (Goethe 20) Next time you take a look in the mirror and see that beautiful face of yours ask yourself the following questions: “Am I showboating? Am I giving away too much too freely? Am I thinking about how I use my unique skills in a way that embraces the future? And finally, but most importantly, Am I complete? If not… How can I get to a place where I am?

Thanks for listening. Onward!

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