I am impatient, so shoot me, but would be delighted if you could post your always-valuable Notes on the candidate-virtue of poise. You listed it in your scary list of 88 candidates, but offered only a teasing list of potential synonyms/neighbors—“confidence, grace, unflappability, authority, gravitas, refinement”. While these offer insight into the ways in which we identify poise in another, I wonder if the term deserves a broader approach, especially if it is to join the Pantheon of other bona fide virtues. My own conception of poise is perhaps captured by the image of the raptor, high above its prey (or hoped-for prey, anyway), at almost stalling-stillness, ready to swoop, waiting for some internal or external cue that signals now, do it now. Balance, readiness, attention and resolve combine in ways that can potentially contribute to the purpose-driven agency that we understand as flourishing. In your Notes on Resolve, you offered a seven-point schema for taking action. I am inclined to suggest that a state of poise, if indeed it can be understood as a state, squeezes in somewhere between 3 Weigh the case for different options and 4 Make a decision. Meanwhile, I shall re-read your Notes on Patience and Forbearance, and hope that your thoughts on poise will emerge at some time!
I am impatient, so shoot me, but would be delighted if you could post your always-valuable Notes on the candidate-virtue of poise. You listed it in your scary list of 88 candidates, but offered only a teasing list of potential synonyms/neighbors—“confidence, grace, unflappability, authority, gravitas, refinement”. While these offer insight into the ways in which we identify poise in another, I wonder if the term deserves a broader approach, especially if it is to join the Pantheon of other bona fide virtues. My own conception of poise is perhaps captured by the image of the raptor, high above its prey (or hoped-for prey, anyway), at almost stalling-stillness, ready to swoop, waiting for some internal or external cue that signals now, do it now. Balance, readiness, attention and resolve combine in ways that can potentially contribute to the purpose-driven agency that we understand as flourishing. In your Notes on Resolve, you offered a seven-point schema for taking action. I am inclined to suggest that a state of poise, if indeed it can be understood as a state, squeezes in somewhere between 3 Weigh the case for different options and 4 Make a decision. Meanwhile, I shall re-read your Notes on Patience and Forbearance, and hope that your thoughts on poise will emerge at some time!