Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.20 (Graver) If I sacrifice my good name for right action, if I play the role of the villain or the buffoon or the scoundrel so as to do the right thing. . . . I don't know if I have that strength. I hope so. I dream it so in my imagination. But I don't know what would happen in such a situation. Premeditatio malorum indeed. But reputation is an external, an indifferent. Could I not care? I should not care. But could I?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.19 (Graver) The reward for right action is having acted rightly. The reward for right action is having acted rightly. The reward for right action is having acted rightly. I knew that. I just love this uncomplicated way of saying it.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.19 (Graver) Help himself by acting virtuously; not 'helps himself' in a selfish way. And that's the goal: acting virtuously. Being generous. Being loyal. Being just. Being courageous. Being temperate. Being communal. Being the philosophy in active form.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXXI.1 (Graver) I just love this. My decision to give should not be contingent on reciprocation. If nothing else, I rob the action of its moral worth it has by subverting it to a desire for praise (or thanks or some other currency). For me, charity should be abundant and anonymous. Done in someone's honor? Sure. But not my own. There's no need for that.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXX.10 (Graver) If I really want to measure myself, to catalogue my merits and failures, deciding where I need work harder, I need to mentally 'lay myself bare' so as to strip away the myriad lies, the story I tell myself about who I am.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXX.1 (Graver) This reminds me of the gatekeeping I see in many Stoic groups online. Be it FB, Reddit, or what have you, some contemporary Stoics feel that if you don't accept everything the ancient Stoics said, even the nonsensical ideas they have for cosmology and physics, then you aren't a Real Stoic™ . Seneca seems to disagree here. If something doesn't work, we are free to abandon it or modify it as necessary. We should be reluctant to get rid of even part their guidance, however; only giving it up after thorough investigation shows it to be hopelessly incorrect. These are the well-executed thoughts of people much wiser than we are and have been tested through the ages by countless adherents. None should be tossed aside out of hand. But that doesn't mean that we must take all of it as gospel. Just like most people recognize that we shouldn't take all the words in the Bible or the Torah or the Koran or t...

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIX.18 (Graver) Virtue is its own reward. I should never do something for praise or recognition or other ego-gratifying ephemeral indifferents. Do it because it is the right thing to do, not because someone else will like me for it.