Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.31

Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things that come from the external cause.

 And let there be justice in the things done by virtue of the internal cause, that is, let there be movement and action terminating in this, in social acts, for this is according to your nature.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.31 (tr Long)

I will often employ foolish little trinkets, signs, images, or phrases to help me get back on track. To this day, for example, I will deliberately look at a little glass bird someone gave me many years ago. It’s a nice piece of work, but the person who gifted it back then decided I was entirely disposable. It reminds me that people will not always keep their promises.

For me, this is now a good thing, a recognition of what trust is truly meant to be. Like viewing that figurine, I also repeat certain words to myself when I feel that I am about to break. I repeat to myself, often many times a day: “Take the Stoic Turn.”

I don’t believe in any magic to certain expressions, and I don’t think that a word says anything beyond what it signifies. Still, words have power. To “turn” can mean to revolve, to spin, to change direction, to move, to become something different. To make a Stoic Turn, to me, means becoming a completely new person.

It means looking at everything quite backwards from the way it was familiar. And what is most familiar to us? We blame what happens to us, and we excuse what we do. We say that the world is wrong, and that we are right. We define who we are by our circumstances, and we forget our own character.

This, my friends, is where we need that Stoic Turn. No one has done us wrong. The world has never hurt us. The circumstances never make the man.

We only do ourselves wrong. We only fail to love the world. We only make of the circumstances what we will. 

What the world does, is precisely what the world does. I do not determine that, as much as I might like to. What I do is what I do. I do determine that, as much as I might not like to.

Take what comes from the outside, and let it be what it is. Look at what comes from the inside, and that is you, all you are, everything you are. Recognizing that is a Stoic Turn.

Think of it this way: you are not a victim, but you are a small creator.

That little bird once made me angry; it now helps me to love, to be social in all the right ways. 

Written in 12/2008