We
never can so thoroughly defeat the vast diversity and malignity of misfortune
with which we are threatened as not to feel the weight of many gusts, if we
offer a large spread of canvas to the wind.
We
must draw our affairs into a small compass, to make the darts of Fortune of no
avail.
For this reason, sometimes slight mishaps have
turned into remedies, and more serious disorders have been healed by slighter
ones.
When
the mind pays no attention to good advice, and cannot be brought to its senses
by milder measures, why should we not think that its interests are being served
by poverty, disgrace, or financial ruin being applied to it? One evil is
balanced by another.
Most
everyone will talk about extending his reach, but very few will be content with
simply having a firmer grip. We admire a tree that grows so very tall, while we
rarely pay attention to the depth of its roots. A man will constantly be
praised for what he has on the outside, and yet the content of his heart and
mind are passed over.
An uncomfortable
side effect of learning to think in a more Stoic manner can be a sense of
alienation from popular culture, though I must remember that this inconvenience
is far outweighed by the benefit of becoming more familiar with my own nature. Taking
a Stoic Turn is far more than merely cosmetic.
People
will speak of finding happiness in their jobs, their homes, their families, or their
luxuries. As pleasing as these things will surely be, I can only think that I
do not truly possess any of them at all, for how they come and go is often
quite beyond my power. As satisfying as their presence certainly feels, I can
only return to the fact that being happy can only be in my merit, not in the
merit of anything else.
So, I
attend to my own soul, while so many others attend to the impressions they make
on the souls of others. I cultivate a little plot of dirt at my feet, while my
neighbors buy up vast fields and orchards as far as the eye can see. I feel out
of place in their eyes, even as I know I am working to find my place in Nature.
I bring
to mind this image of Seneca’s, that the bigger the sail, the more the vessel will
be at the mercy of the storm.
I can
learn to focus on my own virtues through calm reflection, and by listening to
what timeless wisdom, whatever its source, has to tell me. This is what I was
made for.
Too
often, however, I will become distracted by all the bright lights and loud
noises, and then there is another means for me to be get back on the right path.
Nature herself will correct me, by throwing misfortunes in my way, telling me
that I have strayed too far from what is rightly my own.
Sometimes
they are small frustrations, but if I do not heed them, there will inevitably be
much greater dangers coming my way. When I start caring for what is beyond me, the
new objects of my affection and concern will remind me that they are not mine
to possess.
Yes, this
will hurt, a bit at first, more and more if I insist on being stubborn, and yet
the pain is little compared to the prospect of losing myself. Just as the
lesser suffering of the cure is required to dispel the greater suffering of the
disease, so a loss of circumstance can be necessary to save my soul. When I
start nibbling at Fortune, Fortune bites back. I am well advised to heed the
warning, and to be grateful for the lesson.
Nature never
acts in vain, and for every action there will be a reaction. If I won’t heed the
call of my own reason on the inside, then perhaps I will heed the warnings from
the forces on the outside. To be robbed, to be mocked, to be shamed can do me
good.
Written in 10/2011
No comments:
Post a Comment