250707 What I learned in my studies this morning 5

Today's Meditation(s):

And this is the point, isn’t it? We shouldn’t reject the present—for all its complications and frustrations—try to go back to an idealized past. No, we should try to summon our past selves to this future moment, bringing to bear on these times the openness, the curiosity, the adaptability, the hopefulness that everyone has in their youth and strength. ~ The Daily Stoic 250708

This passage from today's Daily Stoic newsletter resonated with me. I know just enough history to know that the Golden Age people pine for is a paramnesia — a distorted mixture of half-remembered truths and fatuous lies — which distracts us from following Nature today, from doing the right thing, right now.

Instead of fearing change, can viewing it through youthful eyes help me find the next right thing? Can wonder and imagination help me find ways through seemingly untenable situations? Can I deal with the world as it is rather than persisting in a delusion?

One way offers me equanimity, offers itself through virtue. Let me pick that way.