240613 What I learned in my studies this morning 4

Today's Meditation(s):

Discourses, 2.23.35 (Waterfield)

Like yesterday, Epictetus is railing against mistaken judgments: those about people and mistaking them for something we can count on, something equal to our internal states and will.

He gives lots of examples of people who supposedly love one another, either as friends or as family, who allow external things to come between them. A necklace. A slight. A political position. An inheritance.

All things people care about gaining or avoiding more than they are committed to loving the other . . . despite years of previous felicity.