Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.28-29 (Graver) That damn hedonic treadmill. I want and I want and I want.  Then?  Poof!  It's forgotten and I'm on to the next thing. Between that and misunderstanding what is worth wanting, I wonder if I ever make progress. But I do.  I reread about 'what is up to me and what is not up to me.'  I meditate on recognizing indifferents and placing appropriate care on them.  I focus on pursuing virtue and expanding my concern to include all of humanity. So even if I sometimes backside, depositing value where it doesn't deserve to be, I am learning and improving, making my mistakes less frequent and less egregious.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.25 (Graver) This is something I began with my wife decades ago and have since expanded to almost everybody: the benefit of the doubt. If there two ways to interpret a situation, and one casts blame while the other does not, go with the generous interpretation first unless and until proven otherwise. I know, however, that some people do not believe this way and have been forced to mask in some areas of life. No need to numbly give others a means to hang me, should that thought ever arise in them.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.20 (Graver) If I sacrifice my good name for right action, if I play the role of the villain or the buffoon or the scoundrel so as to do the right thing. . . . I don't know if I have that strength. I hope so. I dream it so in my imagination. But I don't know what would happen in such a situation. Premeditatio malorum indeed. But reputation is an external, an indifferent. Could I not care? I should not care. But could I?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.19 (Graver) The reward for right action is having acted rightly. The reward for right action is having acted rightly. The reward for right action is having acted rightly. I knew that. I just love this uncomplicated way of saying it.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.19 (Graver) Help himself by acting virtuously; not 'helps himself' in a selfish way. And that's the goal: acting virtuously. Being generous. Being loyal. Being just. Being courageous. Being temperate. Being communal. Being the philosophy in active form.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.1 (Graver) I just love this. My decision to give should not be contingent on reciprocation. If nothing else, I rob the action of its moral worth it has by subverting it to a desire for praise (or thanks or some other currency). For me, charity should be abundant and anonymous. Done in someone's honor? Sure. But not my own. There's no need for that.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXX.10 (Graver) If I really want to measure myself, to catalogue my merits and failures, deciding where I need work harder, I need to mentally 'lay myself bare' so as to strip away the myriad lies, the story I tell myself about who I am.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXX.1 (Graver) This reminds me of the gatekeeping I see in many Stoic groups online. Be it FB, Reddit, or what have you, some contemporary Stoics feel that if you don't accept everything the ancient Stoics said, even the nonsensical ideas they have for cosmology and physics, then you aren't a Real Stoic™ . Seneca seems to disagree here. If something doesn't work, we are free to abandon it or modify it as necessary. We should be reluctant to get rid of even part their guidance, however; only giving it up after thorough investigation shows it to be hopelessly incorrect. These are the well-executed thoughts of people much wiser than we are and have been tested through the ages by countless adherents. None should be tossed aside out of hand. But that doesn't mean that we must take all of it as gospel. Just like most people recognize that we shouldn't take all the words in the Bible or the Torah or the Koran or t...

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIX.18 (Graver) Virtue is its own reward. I should never do something for praise or recognition or other ego-gratifying ephemeral indifferents. Do it because it is the right thing to do, not because someone else will like me for it.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIX.10-12 (Graver) Getting closer to excellence, to virtue, is my goal. It's a threshold event: hit the mark? Change. Boom. " Suddenly I see.... " What would a state like that be like?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.28 (Graver) Premeditatio malorum . Again. Perhaps it's important? Perhaps Seneca wasn't just a poor philosopher, repeating himself and repeating himself? I know the shock and involuntary inaction of encountering the worst. I know how it can leave me incapable of most anything. I also know that I don't fall into that pit nearly as readily if I've considered my options before and roughed out a plan of what to do in such a crisis. Who knew 2000 year old advice works?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.27 (Graver) Pleasure always attenuates. If I pursue it, the race is never ending. If I eschew it, abjure it explicitly, consciously seek the better path, I make headway toward being wise. I find lasting answers and solid understanding.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.17 (Graver) Face the world as it is. Don't shy away from the truth. Denying reality has never once provided me a better plan than admitting what's really going on and acting accordingly. So do it.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.16 (Graver) Iron sharpens iron. Tough opponents toughen me. I win if I shoot the arrow as strait as I can, whether or not it hits the target.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.14 (Graver) It never occurred to me I could also 'borrow reouble' from the past. How silly of me. Guilty as charged.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.13 (Graver) If I decide the pain doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. The other day I was cutting up sone peppers for chili and managed to cut into my fingernail and nail bed. It bled a lot and surprised my daughter. I felt like Dan Aykroyd on SNL as Julia Child. It hurt. I reacted in pain when it happened. Then I controlled myself. I dismissed the pain, nandaged up my finger, put on some gloves, and finished making the chili. No complaints. I know it was minor, but that's what I've got recently....

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVII.20 (Graver) Be virtuous. Follow Nature. Do the right thing. For as long as I am here

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVII.18 (Graver) Am I alive? Now? Yes. I'm doing philosophy! Often? No. I'm an automaton plodding through my paces, up the hill and down again every day. I tolerate the circumstances as they are not yet intolerable, though nothing but lucre comes my way because of it.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVII.12 (Graver) Amor fati . A lesson I work on often. It's not only acceptable this happened: it's good this happened. Mine is to figure out why and how it is good. This part still eludes me all too often. Yet I persist.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVII.10-11 (Graver) Seneca has come back to the topic of not fearing death several times in recent letters. I wonder if anything was going on with Lucillius or if this was instruction for future use? Thrice now, I have killed myself in my dreams. The first time, I had a sword and the only way to handle the situation was to plunge it through my heart. Knowing it would kill me, I immediately made the thrust and the dream ended. No hesitation. Decision became action in the same moment. The next, I leapt from a cliff. Again, once the signs were satisfied — the die cast, 'Caesar, the river crossed' — I went. The need was urgent and my life unimportant cf what was at stake. It was an easy choice. (I remember of the third only that it happened. No details survive.) I hope I am as steadfast when my time comes.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVI.34-35 (Graver) ... Premeditatio malorum : thinking about possible misfortune before it happens so as to inure my soul against the passions that naturally arise from such events. Misplacing my wallet. Wrecking the car. Losing my job. The death of a loved one. The more I anticipate these adversities, the more I accustom myself to the idea. I train my mind to remain calmer, more rational, more capable during stress and calamity. The better I do this, the more effective I will be when misfortune threatens my tranquility. This doesn't mean I will be unaffected, I am no Sage, but it does mean that I will be more capable of helping during challenging times and less likely to bugger it all up.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVI.31-32 (Graver) It's all personal. Either my person is worthy or not; the rest is window dressing. Cars, houses, positions, money, admirers, vacations, travel, stuff . . . if I'm a jerk, if I live an unworthy life, what does it matter? Especially to anyone I should care about or call my friend?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVI.29 (Graver) Do the right thing. That's all that matters. Come hell or high water . . . do the right thing. Everything else is a not up to me. Do the right thing.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVI.6 (Graver) Gotta make the effort. If I am not actively being good, being honorable and seeking virtue, it will not happen. Onky a Sage is so in rune with Nature and themself that virtue is the default state of being. But it is worth the trouble. I want aife of tranquility and goodness. That's the goal. This is the way.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXV.18 (Graver) To fear neither god nor man. To want neither poison nor pleasure. To own myself thoroughly.