Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 8.53 (Hicks and Hicks) Apparently, Marcus was dealing with misplaced desires when he wrote this part of the book. Wanting praise or acceptance or advice from people who were constitutionally unfit to offer it.  This may have been his way to remind himself, and me by extension, to rely on the proper internal locus of reason and to relegate these thoughts from others into the indifferent category in which it belongs.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 8.52 (Hicks and Hicks) Worthless to pursue praise, or to listen to condemnation, from the foolish and the dammed. But there is a natural affinity for life and the living of it that isn't captured here. Antoninus was such a man. Not a student of Stoicism, but a natural follower thereof, Antoninus simply understood the life of reason and following Nature and lived accordingly. But he was the exception, no? Meanwhile, a shepherd living a peaceful life and living actually within Nature can also be one with it, offering prudent examples to follow, if I have wisdom enough to see.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 8.50 (Hicks and Hicks) Allowed to happen? Indicates someone or something could change it. Is that thing up to you? No? Ok. Can your actions have an impact? Yes? Do them. No? Think of something else Stoicism doesn't mean inaction. It means acceptance of reality wtihout adding to the reports I receive.

Today's Meditation(s): His time in bondage offered a chance at greatness, a chance at courage, a chance at justice, a chance at strength, a chance at wisdom—a chance to test the ideas of the Stoics, as he said, in the laboratory of human behavior. ~ The Daily Stoic 260505 Ad Astra per aspera . To the stars through struggle. Amazing things happen to some people almost strictly by accident. To others, they come mostly via their effort. To all, through some combination of the two.  But I'd wager the percentage of people who worked their ass off and were rewarded is far higher than that of people who waited for luck to happen to them.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations, 8.51 (Hicks and Hicks) "Here eyes were like limpid pools...." So begins a quote famous in my mind At least. Wasn't until tonight I looked up limpid. Clear. Unclouded. Free from occlusion. Said of water and eyes.  How can such a peerless stream be soiled long under the purifying spell of eternal renewal? How can an insult or slander harm the inner me without making me complicit in their vices?

Today's Meditation(s): I am well-aware of the terrible crime I am about to commit, but my passion is the master of my reason, passion that causes the greatest suffering in the world . ~ Euripides, Medea And then she kills her children to spite her husband for his betrayal. At least my vices and voices are a bit less lethal than Medea's.

Today's Meditation(s): Musonius Rufus, Lecture 3.7 I Iove that my wife is smarter than I am. And she's handier, too. We study philosophy and psychology together, though not what I do for this blog. This is separate. I love that she understands my Stoicism and its philosophical foundations. (That she knows about those who sell stoicism as a way to 'get ahead in life' or who leave out the commitment to community and the drive to be more virtuous rather than simply more veneered in a warped form of 'success.' She recognizes the difference between that and the philosophy as found in the extant writings.) I love that she cares about being a good person and holds that as a priority for our children, just as I do. I cannot imagine wanting her to be any less intelligent, wise, or capable than she is. Why on Earth would I possibly want that?!

Today's Meditation(s):  Musonius Rufus, Lecture 2.4 Virtue is natural to humanity, but must be trained as any skill or art. "My old man told me one time, You never get wise, you only get older." ~The Dandy Warhols, Big Indian (2000) As I told my child, this is only true if I let it be true. I may not make much progress on my road to wisdom, but I will at least learn of my faults and fallacies, assumptions and assheadedness. Now I have a list of things to fix. That's better than many. Wisdom can be trained. Follow Nature. Use reason. Focus on what is up to me. Keep it simple. Use wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage to pursue virtue. Do the next right thing. Amor fati.