210512 What I learned in my studies this morning

Be kind. Live it now. 

The world spins on regardless,

But I must love others. 

From The Daily Stoic: 

My favorite Facebook page's motto is #BeKind. That's one of the reasons I like it so much. 

Be kind is the number one thing I want my kids to learn from me. Before work hard. Before love learning. Before perseverance. Before eat right and exercise. Before myriad other qualities which will serve them well in life. 

All of those things are important, desperately important, to me that they learn them and practice them in their lives, but being kind is higher even than that. 

I try hard to model this, but I still have work to do. 

Today I will be better. Today they will see this from me.

Today's Meditation:

A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine 

Chapter 5,The Dichotomy of Control, § On Becoming Invincible

Irvine makes an important distinction missing from most analyses of Epictetus' famous opening to his Handbook: "Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us."

Critics of Stoic thought sometimes use Epictetus' phrasing (perhaps ambiguous through translation and time) as a way to deride this most basic of Stoic approaches to life. And rightfully so; as (usually) written, that intermediate category of "things over which we have some control" is missing.

People understand that, while whether or not my favorite team makes the playoffs this year is not under their control (mine didn't), things like health and impulses are, to some degree, at least partially under our control. While we cannot ensure that we have good health or that we resist problematic impulses, we can, through habit and practice, have some effect on the probability that we will be healthy and avoid negative temptations.