Sunday Firesides: The 3 Elements of a Life Well-Lived | The Art of Manliness

Many answers have been offered to this question. But Otto Paul Kretzmann, a professor and pastor of the mid-20th century, articulated what is perhaps the truest and pithiest formulation of the good life. Kretzmann said that if man is to survive, flourish, and stay sane in the modern world, he must have “something to live by, to live on, and to live for.” Something to live on. Kretzmann may have listed this element second, but it serves as the prosaic but essential foundation of the good life. Fulfillment is hard to grab ahold of amidst a paycheck-to-paycheck existence; something above a grinding, subsistence-level income is required. Money may not directly buy happiness, but by keeping the specter of worry and stress from darkening one’s doorway and providing a springboard to interesting, adventurous, and joy-inducing pursuits, it provides the conditions that make it far easier to obtain. Something to live by. It’s hard to find your way without a map, a compass, a set of signposts. It’

Many answers have been offered to this question. But Otto Paul Kretzmann, a professor and pastor of the mid-20th century, articulated what is perhaps the truest and pithiest formulation of the good life. Kretzmann said that if man is to survive, flourish, and stay sane in the modern world, he must have “something to live by, to live on, and to live for.” Something to live on. Kretzmann may have listed this element second, but it serves as the prosaic but essential foundation of the good life. Fulfillment is hard to grab ahold of amidst a paycheck-to-paycheck existence; something above a grindi