It
is natural that these things should be done by such persons, it is a matter of
necessity; and if a man will not have it so, he will not allow the fig-tree to
have juice.
But
by all means bear this in mind, that within a very short time both you and he
will be dead; and soon not even your names will be left behind.
—Marcus
Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4 (tr
Long)
I have felt
angry when I see people act with greed, lust, or deception, and then I have
felt even angrier when they continue to do so with impunity, or are even
praised and rewarded for their deeds. In the simplest sense, it just doesn’t
seem fair.
Whenever
I feel this way, I must remind myself of two things, each of which is crucial
to the peace of a Stoic life. First, Providence has a place for all things.
Second, the things that look so big from one angle will become quite small when
viewed from another.
Gifted with
reason, every man will choose for himself what he considers to be best. His
actions may be virtuous or vicious, and from this he will surely determine
whether he lives in happiness or in misery.
Yet even
when he has done wrong, Providence always offers a way for it to be rebuilt
into something right. The reason, order, and purpose in all things will take
our freedom, and include it as a part of a greater necessity. Nothing occurs in
Nature without serving the good of the whole.
I may
not understand exactly how each thing will be a means to that end, but I can be
certain that it will be, because I know that nothing in Nature acts in vain.
The beauty of such design is that something that seems so wrong will suddenly
become the opportunity for something so right.
Instead
of wanting to remove bad people from the world, or denying them their power to
make their own choices, I can instead think of how even their disorder can be
used to assist in achieving harmony. I should hardly want to remove all the qualities
of Nature that are necessary for things being what they are, and for the
fulfillment of what they must become.
Now the
benefit of time, and the possibility of a better perspective, has shown me many
ways in which what I thought seemed unbearable could actually become the source
for something better. This may not remove the wrong, but it will transform the
wrong.
Yet I
also face suffering that doesn’t seem to budge at all, or pain that will still
haunt me, either when awake or asleep. It may even seem to grow bigger and
stronger.
Even
then, I remind myself that however insurmountable the obstacle appears, the
only thing that keeps it in my way is when I try to make something permanent of
what is really passing. It is my false estimation that attaches importance to what
is ultimately unimportant in the scheme of life, and I am making more of it
than I need to.
Has
someone insulted me, disposed of me, or manipulated me, to the point where I
can hardly bear the agony? I must recall that another’s skewed perception
of gain, and my shallow perception of loss, both come from thinking that false
goods, like power, pleasure, wealth, or esteem, are themselves lasting, or worth
anything at all. Their roots never grow deep, and so they are washed away in
the next rain.
I can
rest assured that what feels bad can always be made good, and it only feels so
bad because I am forgetting how to rightly distinguish between what is bad and
what is good in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment