Why do you torment yourself and lose weight over some problem which it is more clever to have scorned than to solve?
When a soldier is undisturbed and travelling at his ease, he can hunt for trifles along his way; but when the enemy is closing in on the rear, and a command is given to quicken the pace, necessity makes him throw away everything which he picked up in moments of peace and leisure. have no time to investigate disputed inflections of words, or to try my cunning upon them.
“Behold the gathering clans, the fast-shut gates,
And weapons whetted ready for the war.”
I need a stout heart to hear without flinching this din of battle which sounds round about.
And all would rightly think me mad if, when greybeards and women were heaping up rocks for the fortifications, when the armor-clad youths inside the gates were awaiting, or even demanding, the order for a sally, when the spears of the foemen were quivering in our gates and the very ground was rocking with mines and subterranean passages—I say, they would rightly think me mad if I were to sit idle, putting such petty posers as this: "What you have not lost, you have. But you have not lost any horns. Therefore, you have horns," or other tricks constructed after the model of this piece of sheer silliness.
When a soldier is undisturbed and travelling at his ease, he can hunt for trifles along his way; but when the enemy is closing in on the rear, and a command is given to quicken the pace, necessity makes him throw away everything which he picked up in moments of peace and leisure. have no time to investigate disputed inflections of words, or to try my cunning upon them.
“Behold the gathering clans, the fast-shut gates,
And weapons whetted ready for the war.”
I need a stout heart to hear without flinching this din of battle which sounds round about.
And all would rightly think me mad if, when greybeards and women were heaping up rocks for the fortifications, when the armor-clad youths inside the gates were awaiting, or even demanding, the order for a sally, when the spears of the foemen were quivering in our gates and the very ground was rocking with mines and subterranean passages—I say, they would rightly think me mad if I were to sit idle, putting such petty posers as this: "What you have not lost, you have. But you have not lost any horns. Therefore, you have horns," or other tricks constructed after the model of this piece of sheer silliness.
—from Seneca, Moral Letters 49
I am most familiar with wasting time in academia, though I have sadly seen it in all walks of life, from a dozen construction workers standing around while one is digging a trench, to the tortuous meetings held in most any of the conference rooms across the country.
The urgency to live only becomes apparent when we embrace a noble purpose to live. In lacking aim, we awkwardly muddle through the day, more concerned with appearing occupied than bothering to achieve anything of human value.
Here the consummate professional takes great offense, and he insists on his many worthy achievements, though he remains ignorant of how all of them concern fiddling about with circumstances, while none of them are about the formation of character. He is especially outraged because you may be seeing through his disguise.
I’m afraid most of the tasks I’ve spent my time trying to complete weren’t really productive at all, but rather exercises in busywork, and most of the problems I’ve tried to solve were artifices, elaborate ruses designed to avoid making genuine commitments. Recognition is the first step to reformation.
Military analogies may be out of fashion at the moment, yet they are ideal for representing the gravity of putting everything on the line for the sake of conviction. Even as a soldier may polish his boots to a perfect shine when he is back in camp, he would be a fool to worry about getting them dirty as he charges into battle.
It should be no different when any of us are faced with a challenge of conscience. If it is time for action, we do not have the leisure to play games with words or hide behind equivocations. Fortitude has no place for turning technicalities into excuses, and it won’t help us one bit to ponder a principle without choosing to live it.
I am most familiar with wasting time in academia, though I have sadly seen it in all walks of life, from a dozen construction workers standing around while one is digging a trench, to the tortuous meetings held in most any of the conference rooms across the country.
The urgency to live only becomes apparent when we embrace a noble purpose to live. In lacking aim, we awkwardly muddle through the day, more concerned with appearing occupied than bothering to achieve anything of human value.
Here the consummate professional takes great offense, and he insists on his many worthy achievements, though he remains ignorant of how all of them concern fiddling about with circumstances, while none of them are about the formation of character. He is especially outraged because you may be seeing through his disguise.
I’m afraid most of the tasks I’ve spent my time trying to complete weren’t really productive at all, but rather exercises in busywork, and most of the problems I’ve tried to solve were artifices, elaborate ruses designed to avoid making genuine commitments. Recognition is the first step to reformation.
Military analogies may be out of fashion at the moment, yet they are ideal for representing the gravity of putting everything on the line for the sake of conviction. Even as a soldier may polish his boots to a perfect shine when he is back in camp, he would be a fool to worry about getting them dirty as he charges into battle.
It should be no different when any of us are faced with a challenge of conscience. If it is time for action, we do not have the leisure to play games with words or hide behind equivocations. Fortitude has no place for turning technicalities into excuses, and it won’t help us one bit to ponder a principle without choosing to live it.
When presented with a real-life difficulty, forming a committee to further explore the matter is the mark of a shirker. Beware of those who prefer talking over doing.
As Marcus Aurelius said, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
Or as Thomas a Kempis said, “I would rather feel compunction than know its definition."
—Reflection written in 3/2013
IMAGE: Juan de la Corte, Battle Scene with a Roman Army Besieging a Large City (c. 1640)
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