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The Split in the Road+ A Reference to The Office-Rachael Gregson



 Reading Aristotle's writings and how he defined the difference between magnanimity and pusillanimity, I immediately pictured a road splitting off into two in my head. In life, we've all come to a crossroad before, probably like a thousand times if you're me, and each time a choice demands to be made.  

The meaning of magnanimity is "greatness of soul". A person of this virtue chases after things in life that are considered honorable and respectable.

The meaning of pusillanimity is "smallness of soul". In comparison to the magnanimous individual, one who is pusillanimous turns away from noble duties because he fears what is asked of him and instead settles on whichever's the easiest path of the two. He smiles to himself as he walks away, not understanding that almost always the easier path will lead to the hardest lessons in life until there's no point in turning around. 

I think a possible thing Aristotle could have been getting at is that pusillanimous people will never know their own qualification in life because they never give themselves a chance to be tested through fire. The troublesome thing is, they think they're thriving when rather, they're just merely surviving. They'll never fail, but they'll never ever really achieve success either. 

Hate to be the nerd to bring The Office into this, but it reminded me of a quote that Michael Scott said in one of the episodes, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Being pusillanimous is exactly that.

I commented on posts by Jamie Peters and Abbie Hedden.

Comments

  1. Hailey MorganOctober 26, 2020 at 9:35 AM

    I find it ironic how, in Honors, it should be fairly easy to speak up and be magnanimous. However, I tend to stay extremely quiet in Honors, choosing to instead remain on the pusillanimous path.

    This is a habit I really need to break out of! Our Honors class is probably the best place to practice being magnanimous so I really need to remove myself from my comfort zone and dive into our discussions more.

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  2. Abigale BellOctober 26, 2020 at 6:47 PM

    Hi Rachael! Your post reminded me so much of one of my favorite poems, 'The Road Not Taken,' by Robert Frost. Maybe the magnanimous road is the road less travelled; maybe it's harder. But this road leads to "greatness of soul" which will make all the difference in life.

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  3. Logan TurnerOctober 26, 2020 at 8:42 PM

    Yeah, I try to be a humble person, but I often find myself just being pusillanimous. It's definitely something I need to work on. In my effort to be moderately magnanimous, I find myself shying away too far from being conceited into pusillanimous territory which as we as we all know, is a problem.

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