To Be or Not To Be

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

~A Wise Man Said~

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Saturday, August 08, 2020
 
I have been reading bits and pieces of Stoic philosophy recently. There is much that resonates with me and some that doesn't. In the following quote for example, I relate to the idea of standing one's ground against misfortune rather than allowing it to break one—which in modern parlance indicates grit, perseverance, determination and other such attributes. What I don’t get, and it might be because I need to understand it better, is the idea that virtues are natural to man’s nature or that virtue realises man’s true nature… I mean in a sense I agree that virtues are all that is noble in man’s nature but in some sense the nobility to me comes from defying more natural by which I mean animalistic elements rather than it coming naturally. But my confusion might come from a lack of understanding or agreement on definitions of key concepts…rather than a disagreement in principle.

 
"Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
Unhappy am I, because this has happened to me—Not so, but Happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For such a thing as this might have happened to every man; but every man would not have continued free from pain on such an occasion. Why then is that rather a misfortune than this a good fortune? And dost thou in all cases call that a man’s misfortune, which is not a deviation from man’s nature? And does a thing seem to thee to be a deviation from man’s nature, when it is not contrary to the will of man’s nature? Well, thou knowest the will of nature. Will then this which has happened prevent thee from being just, magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions and falsehood; will it prevent thee from having modesty, freedom, and everything else, by the presence of which man’s nature obtains all that is its own? Remember too on every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this principle: that this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4:49

posted by Sylvia D'souza at 10:29 pm 0 comments
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