210702 What I learned in my studies this morning

Friday doesn't feel

Like Friday. Day's blur beyond

The fading sunset.

Daily Stoic:

Circumstances often suggest I do different things according to what would be advantageous at the moment. Circumstances can go jump in a lake if it means I must ignore my moral obligation or sell my soul.

Life is gray,  not black and white, yet I almost always know what is the right thing to do.  Partially, this is because I inherited the same internal moral voice we all have.  Partially, this is because I have taken the time to think about things ahead of time, putting in place principles by which I can evaluate problems.

Doing the right thing is not always easy. Knowing the right thing to do, however, is usually not too difficult to suss out.  In those times when it isn't clear, I do the best I can.  That's all any of us can do.

Today's Meditation:

From Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium by Seneca

From A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine:

Chapter 22: Practicing Stoicism 

5. Dealing with insults.  Irvine says he enjoys being insulted. Why?  Because it gives him an opportunity to play with the insulter's mind.

He analyzes and categorizes insults when he receives them.  He uses self-deprecating humor to put off the insulter.  He doesn't participate in the normal rules which make people eager to insult others.  It makes it no fun for the attacker.

6. Dealing with anger.  This is one of the most important of Stoic behavior modifications: regularly practicing remaining calm when most people would be fuming.

Irvine disagrees with Seneca that expressing anger is not pleasurable.  He says it does, indeed, feel good to vent when your anger is righteous: when you are correct and the other person is wrong and this release, like scratching an itch, brings temporary relief of the bad feelings brought on by whatever brought about your ire in the first place.  Unfortunately, like the itch, scratching is a temporary pleasure.  The itch, the anger, will return and, if we continue to assuage it through such unhealthy means, it will grow worse and worse until it causes real harm.

Anger can be feigned if it would help modify someone's behavior.  When the delinquent in question has shown that they will not respond to kind correction or being given a cold shoulder, a Stoic may pretend to be angry to accomplish their goal, all while carefully avoiding feeling a real emotion which might compromise their serenity.

Laughter, too, should be in our arsenal.