Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.24 I gotta admit, this one has me at a loss:  I get the first part.  I get the second part.  I just see no connection between the two. I have 5 or 6 translations of the Meditations (because I like to compare how differently scholars can present the text). All of t hem show this passage as a singular whole. Conversely, several online sources seem to indicate that there is lacuna in the text after restored . That the text here might be incomplete or missing something. This makes sense to me. The few discussions of this verse I could find tied themselves in knots attempting to explain it as a whole. Rather, I think it makes more sense to assume some missing text shows that either the two parts don't go together at all or there's a piece which explains the seeming non sequitur absent from our versions. It boils down to 'don't be grumpy and scornful so much that it makes me that way permanently....

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.22 Forgive others. Understand others. Attribute to ignorance or ambiguity rather than malice. This is the soul of dealing with those who disappoint and derail. ===== Want it so bad? Come my way. When it's over, just forget my name.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.21 Do not fret for not having a LEGACY to leave the world. The world neither cares nor will remember in but a breath Of all things, how and for how long I will be remembered is the furthest from my grasp. Stick to the immediacy of today, here, now: be a good person; follow Nature and Reason; be an asset to my community; pursue virtue; focus on what is up to me; be kind and generous and loyal and loving. These are what matters most.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Robin Hard), 6.17 I am not angry with you, only go away! Yes you, unwanted and intrusive thoughts. You, too, moments from the past no one else remembers. And you, anticipation of embarrassment. Get thee gone! (if only it were so easy.) But it's a start. It's a place to stand when I confront such feelings. I can work with this.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.16 Again with the focus only on the internal, on the subjective, attitudinal decisions made. But it's to internalize the scripture about indifferents. Easy to say or think about, hard to do. How can I make progress on this? How can I convince myself that things not related to my virtue are truly indifferent?

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.13 It's the difference between participating and committing; between the chicken and the pig at breakfast.  In one, I do it because I believe it to be right. In the other, I do it because it is my first thought, automatic and natural. I've not achieved that yet.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.12 Am I morally upright? Need I be made morally correct with aid from others? Regardless of the source of the action, that is my goal. If I can do it alone? Great. Get to it. If I cannot do it of my own volition? Great. I recognize my deficiency and correct it with instruction from outside. The point is to be a good person, not to do everything myself. Cf. 7.7

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.10 Life and the universe, and all they hold, are transitory, temporary, ephemeral, and inconstant; soon to devolve into constituent parts and forgotten. Deal with it. It has always been this way. It will always be this way. There is no shame or regret in this. It simply is. Accept it and move on. Crying does nothing. Wailing does nothing. Better to live with dignity, following reason and Nature, and love my fate. Here lies equanimity. Here lies satisfaction.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.5 Do what I can, with what I have, or with help from others, to the best of my ability, for the benefit of others. And people think Stoicism is heartless.

Today's Meditation: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, p. 10 Human resilience can accommodate Auschwitz. Imagine how crazy that is . . . t orture, beatings, mass executions, betrayal on all levels. And that's just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head. There are more. But man can get used to anything.

Today's Meditation: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, p. 10 Hope is a powerful thing, Persephone's only remaining 'gift.' (Though perhaps the worst of all.) But the loss of hope, the loss of the expected out, can have devastating effects. Hope was often the very trait that signified immanent despair and ultimately, death, in the prisoners.

Today's Meditation: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, p. 6 Some things must be experienced to be understood. Frankl's circumstance is one I'll never have true knowledge of, but perhaps his words will give me enough flavor to enlighten me. He wants to present this in a detached manner, but cannot since he is an integral part of the story. Even so, things can be objectified at least to some extent and thus he tries. And he knows that this is a challenge so he works at it.

Today's Meditation: Meditations  (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.52 I don't care. Or rather, I do care, just perhaps not the way it's usually meant.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.57 My mistakes certainly can control me. Misjudged decisions, overlooked opportunities, premature quitting, biased perceptions, and more. They set my course more often than any conscious decisions on my part.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.51 Equanimity depends on knowing what is up to me and focusing on that. If my attention is true, my happiness will be attainable.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.50 The Stoic reserve clause. As the Catholics put it, " Deus vult " ("God willing"). If Fate permits. If Providence allows. If Fortune falls our way . . . all just ways of saying that things not up to me are, in point of fact, not up to me. Maybe my efforts will succeed. Maybe they will fall short or be actively thwarted. Neither is my concern. My goal is to perform as best I can. Perhaps that will be enough. Perhaps not. Whether the arrow hits the target is subject to myriad vagaries and unpredictable influences. I must accept the result and be happy that I did all I could to achieve my aim.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.48 I need better friends.... I kid,  I kid. My friends are good people. And it is nice to think of their generosity, kindness, attention to detail, loyalty, companionship, consideration, and more. They make me better. They've made me better. If I get lucky, they'll continue to make me better. Guess it all depends on whether or not I can learn what they are teaching me.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.47 History will forget me soon, if it designs to remember me at all. I'm OK with that. Ive never planned on a personal legacy. Only that my children be good people and pass that along to their children, future families, and friends. That all I want. And if that happens, I'll be more than happy. None of that is up to me. What is, is how I treat people and raise my kids. It's what I can decide. It's decisions I can make. It's what's up to me.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.46 Marcus was in a particularly morose, pessimistic mood it seems. History may not always repeat exactly, but it always at least rhymes.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.42 Be sure, in this great drama, to be more than a throw-away line or a coarse jest. What a great line!* Amor fati. Accept my fate. Engage it. Pursue it even. Know my role. Make my brief time on stage memorable, worth it. Give myself over to the role and play it well. ===== ×  And this translation more felicitous than others.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.41 Stop blaming others for shit that isn't truly bad or good, it simply is. Preferred or dispreferred, it isn't what really counts. Now to actually live that way....

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.39 Yet Stoicism is a cold and heartless philosophy. Pshaw. Those who think thlis need but read the Meditations, even superficially, to learn otherwise. It could be said any planer or more often that a major thrust of the thought is bent to oikeosis  — concern and help toward others. We are all alike. We are all part of humanity. We are all meant for one another.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.31 How much of my suffering is self-made? How much more do I worry and fret about things that haven't happened? That may never happen? That likely won't happen?  Things I make up to worry about above and beyond what's actually happening in my life? Limit my assumptions. Focus my thoughts. Ignore the little voice that invents things just to bother me. Stop allowing imaginary things, things almost universally not up to me, to cause stress and strife. Focus on reality. Reality, while not always to my liking, at least is real enough for me to try and change it for the better.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.30 Respect Nature. Be kind. Be helpful. Be good. 'Don't be a dick' and that shall be the whole of the law .

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.26 Fighting with the world because it's not how I wish it to be is a fool's errand. My car won't run if I don't put gas in it. Why am I getting frustrated that I have to put gas in my car? It's how the world works, whether I like it or not. I may as well be mad that gravity holds me to the ground when I want to fly or let myself become pissed that I don't already know the contents of a book I haven't yet read. It never makes things better. In fact, it often deliberately makes things worse. Oh but I feel better, right? My righteous offensensitivity is assuaged . . . while I've just created three more problems to deal with. And,despite knowing this, I do it anyway. More stupid me.