A Life Well-Lived Through Boethius and Heidegger
	Throughout this semester, Moreau has challenged me to think of what constitutes a life well-lived. However, I have found that some of the most substantive contributions to my ideas of a life well-lived have come from my philosophy class. These contributions specifically stem from readings of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius and The Question Concerning Technology by Martin Heidegger. Through reading Boethius, I have come to understand what I believe to be the key to pursuing a life well-lived. While Heidegger has opened me to the ever-pressing threats I face in my pursuit of a life well-lived.
In week three, Father Michael Himes presented us with “three key questions” to ask during our career discernment process. Father Michael’s first question was, “is this a source of joy?” (“Three Key Questions” by Father Michael Himes - Moreau FYE Week Three). This question is directly related to the writings of Boethius. Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in prison while awaiting his wrongful execution. At first, he laments over his turn of fortune. Boethius had long been an incredibly fortunate and successful man. Yet with no wrongdoing of his own, Boethius lost this fortune and was sentenced to death for treason he did not commit. While Boethius awaited his death, Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogothic King who betrayed Boethius, sat atop great riches and power. How could a good man like Boethius find himself in such a situation while wicked men like Theodoric prosper?
The key to a life well-lived lies within Boethius’s answer to this question. Boethius’s destructive turn of fortune does not define whether or not his life was well-lived, nor did the good fortune he experienced earlier. Similarly, the great fortune of Theodoric does not define his life as well-lived. Fortune, and the accompanying suffering and joy, are not what defines a life well-lived. Fortune is ultimately out of our control, and similarly to Boethius, we are all vulnerable to fall victim to Fortune’s changing tides. Something as volatile as fortune could certainly not be the key to a life well-lived.
The key to a life well-lived is not fortune and its riches, but rather, it is the pursuit of true happiness. Such a conclusion is seemingly obvious; of course achieving true happiness will lead to a life well-lived. However, for Boethius, the issue's complexity lies not in striving for true happiness but rather in identifying true happiness. We mistake parts of true happiness for the whole. For example, we often believe that pursuing riches, power, or family will bring us true happiness and a well-lived life. This idea is reinforced by week four of the Moreau curriculum. “If a person only focuses on one or two parts of his/her self-concept for a career, that person will eventually hit a wall” (Navigating Your Career Journey by Meruelo Center for Career Development - Moreau FYE Week Four). In our career discernment process, if we only focus on one aspect as opposed to the whole, we will ultimately find ourselves unfulfilled. Riches, power, and family will not bring about true happiness or a truly well-lived life. These are just parts of the whole, they are aspects of true happiness. By focusing solely on the part, we grow blind to the whole and ultimately choose not to see it, settling for our partial happiness. The first step in achieving a life well-lived is identifying true happiness. Identifying true happiness and pursuing the whole will ultimately bring together all of the parts. Boethius recognized true happiness as God, a conclusion which I have come to agree with. By pursuing a healthy relationship with God, humans can achieve their ultimate goal of true happiness, bringing about a life well-lived.
Through The Question Concerning Technology, Heidegger presents the many threats to our pursuit of a life well-lived. Despite being written in 1954, The Question Concerning Technology is incredibly relevant today, especially when considering our pursuits of a life well-lived. Where Francis Bacon took an optimistic outlook on technology, Heidegger took the opposite view. Bacon’s The New Atlantis was written to depict a perfect society, driven by his ideas of technology. While Bacon may have viewed Solomon’s House as a perfect societal helmsman, his faith in technology was misguided. When viewed through the lens of modern technology, a secretive guiding society such as Solomon’s House is instead seen as dystopian and untrustworthy. 
Heidegger’s view of modern technology was far more pessimistic than Bacon’s and is far more accurate. Heidegger viewed modern technology with great skepticism. Older technologies worked with nature in a poiesis, helping to reveal the being of something. There is a certain beauty to such a technology, a beauty that is lost in modern technology. As opposed to working along with nature, modern technology “enframes,” it challenges and forces nature to reveal, constraining it to “standing reserve.” In my opinion, enframing and the standing reserve are the two greatest obstacles we face on our path towards a life well-lived, and modern technologies, which we all use almost every day, perpetuate this obstacle. The ultimate threat of enframing is when we begin to see each other as standing reserve, and unfortunately, this has already come to be. We are drawing away from solidarity and “our relationship with the other” and are instead finding ways in which we can use each other to our advantage. We are no longer advancing “through the practice of accompaniment” (Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together by Steve Reifenberg - Moreau FYE Week Nine). Instead, we are regressing through the practice of enframing.
In week one, we read about companies in Silicon Valley enacting a weekly “Internet Sabbath” (“Why We Need to Slow Down Our Lives” by Pico Lyer - Moreau FYE Week One). While they may not characterize the threats of technology as enframing and standing reserve, these companies recognize the dangers of their technology. However, while their employees enjoy internet sabbaths, the rest of us are trapped, handicapped by our devices, and seemingly doomed to be standing reserve. These companies have achieved one of the greatest threats identified by Heidegger, the turning of humans themselves into standing reserve. We are merely numbers, tools used to drive the profits of these companies. Modern technology has turned the average human being into a standing reserve, and the only way to achieve true happiness and a truly well-lived life is to escape this enframing. We must also address the enframing we may act upon others. For example, when Dean G. Marcus Cole wrote, “Each of us needs to get to know people who differ from us. We must all make a conscious decision and effort to expand our circles,” he did so intending for us to genuinely grow (I am George Floyd. Except, I can breathe. And I can do something by Dean G. Marcus Cole - Moreau FYE Week Twelve). Not for us to create façade friendships solely designed to help us.
When I first read Heidegger, I felt hopeless. I already am a standing reserve, and these technologies are essential to my life. I would not be able to lead my life as I currently do without these technologies. I felt trapped. As I continually thought of Heidegger, technology, and enframing, I concluded that the solution to the standing reserve is not to live like a hermit in the woods. While I may not be able to free myself from being standing reserve, I can try to avoid personal enframement. The most I can do is not treat others or nature as standing reserve. Trying our best to avoid enframement on the personal level is our only escape from this great obstacle. Pope Francis said, “Happiness can only be discovered as a gift of harmony between the whole and each single component” (“Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone” by His Holiness Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week Seven). We can only pursue Boethius’s true happiness through harmony with those around us, and such a harmony cannot be achieved if we trap ourselves in enframement, turning possible harmony into standing reserve. A life well-lived can only be achieved by acknowledging the whole of true happiness as God and the avoidance of enframing and the standing reserve.