240614 What I learned in my studies this morning 4*

Today's Meditation(s):

Discourses, 2.23.35 (Waterfield)

Yesterday was the end of our trip. Two weeks in Europe and back home.

After the way too long flight, I would have welcomed a pleasant inn halfway home to stop at. (I got sick with a few days left in the trip and it made the flight just that much more unpleasant.)

But Epictetus is being metaphorical here. This passage appears in a discussion of rhetoric and speaking well.

He is reminding me not to be distracted by flowery words and intricate and interesting arguments. They are there to teach me, not to enrapture me. They are necessary to get across some important point, but not the important point itself.

In my youth, this was certainly the case. In my dotage, I am finally getting past them to the core of the matter.