March

20th
READY AND AT HOME

“I may wish to be free from torture, but if the time comes for me to endure it, I’ll wish to bear it
courageously with bravery and honor. Wouldn’t I prefer not to fall into war? But if war does
befall me, I’ll wish to carry nobly the wounds, starvation, and other necessities of war. Neither
am I so crazy as to desire illness, but if I must suffer illness, I’ll wish to do nothing rash or
dishonorable. The point is not to wish for these adversities, but for the virtue that makes
adversities bearable.”
—SENECA, M ORAL LETTERS, 67.4

P resident James Garfield was a great man—raised in humble circumstances, self-educated, and
eventually a Civil War hero—whose presidency was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. In his brief
time in office, he faced a bitterly divided country as well as a bitterly and internally divided Republican
Party. During one fight, which challenged the very authority of his office, he stood firm, telling an adviser:
“Of course I deprecate war, but if it is brought to my door the bringer will find me at home.”
That’s what Seneca is saying here. We’d be crazy to want to face difficulty in life. But we’d be
equally crazy to pretend that it isn’t going to happen. Which is why when it knocks on our door—as it
very well may this morning—let’s make sure we’re prepared to answer. Not the way we are when a
surprise visitor comes late at night, but the way we are when we’re waiting for an important guest:
dressed, in the right head space, ready to go.
 March 21st
THE BEST RETREAT IS IN HERE, NOT OUT THERE

“People seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, or in the mountains. You are very
much in the habit of yearning for those same things. But this is entirely the trait of a base person,
when you can, at any moment, find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more
peaceful and less busy retreat than in your own soul—especially if on close inspection it is
filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well-ordered. Treat yourself often to
this retreat and be renewed.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, M EDITATIONS, 4.3.1

D o you have a vacation coming up? Are you looking forward to the weekend so you can have some
peace and quiet? Maybe, you think, after things settle down or after I get this over with. But how
often has that ever actually worked?
The Zen meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn coined a famous expression: “Wherever you go, there you
are.” We can find a retreat at any time by looking inward. We can sit with our eyes closed and feel our
breath go in and out. We can turn on some music and tune out the world. We can turn off technology or shut
off those rampant thoughts in our head. That will provide us peace. Nothing else.
 March 22nd
THE SIGN OF TRUE EDUCATION

“What is it then to be properly educated? It is learning to apply our natural preconceptions to the
right things according to Nature, and beyond that to separate the things that lie within our power
from those that don’t.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.22.9–10a

A degree on a wall means you’re educated as much as shoes on your feet mean you’re walking. It’s a
start, but hardly sufficient.
Otherwise, how could so many “educated” people make unreasonable decisions? Or miss so many
obvious things? Partly it’s because they forget that they ought to focus only on that which lies within their
power to control. A surviving fragment from the philosopher Heraclitus expresses that reality:

“Many who have learned

from Hesiod the countless names
of gods and monsters
never understand
that night and day are one.”

Just as you can walk plenty well without shoes, you don’t need to step into a classroom to understand
the basic, fundamental reality of nature and of our proper role in it. Begin with awareness and reflection.
Not just once, but every single second of every single day.
 March 23rd
THE STRAITJACKETED SOUL

“The diseases of the rational soul are long-standing and hardened vices, such as greed and
ambition—they have put the soul in a straitjacket and have begun to be permanent evils inside it.
To put it briefly, this sickness is an unrelenting distortion of judgment, so things that are only
mildly desirable are vigorously sought after.”
—SENECA, M ORAL LETTERS, 75.11

I n the financial disaster of the late 2000s, hundreds of smart, rational people lost trillions of dollars’
worth of wealth. How could such smart people have been so foolish? These people knew the system,
knew how the markets were supposed to work, and had managed billions, if not trillions, of dollars. And
yet, almost to a person, they were wrong—and wrong to the tune of global market havoc.
It’s not hard to look at that situation and understand that greed was some part of the problem. Greed
was what led people to create complex markets that no one understood in the hope of making a quick
buck. Greed caused other people to make trades on strange pools of debt. Greed prevented anyone from
calling out this situation for what it was—a house of cards just waiting for the slightest breeze to knock it
all down.
It doesn’t do you much good to criticize those folks after the fact. It’s better to look at how greed and
vices might be having a similar effect in your own life. What lapses in judgment might your vices be
causing you? What “sicknesses” might you have?
And how can your rational mind step in and regulate them?
 March 24th
THERE IS PHILOSOPHY IN EVERYTHING

“Eat like a human being, drink like a human being, dress up, marry, have children, get politically
active—suffer abuse, bear with a headstrong brother, father, son, neighbor, or companion. Show
us these things so we can see that you truly have learned from the philosophers.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.21.5–6

P lutarch, a Roman biographer as well as an admirer of the Stoics, didn’t begin his study of the greats
of Roman literature until late in life. But, as he recounts in his biography of Demosthenes, he was
surprised at how quickly it all came to him. He wrote, “It wasn’t so much that the words brought me into a
full understanding of events, as that, somehow, I had a personal experience of the events that allowed me
to follow closely the meaning of the words.”
This is what Epictetus means about the study of philosophy. Study, yes, but go live your life as well.
It’s the only way that you’ll actually understand what any of it means. And more important, it’s only from
your actions and choices over time that it will be possible to see whether you took any of the teachings to
heart.
Be aware of that today when you’re going to work, going on a date, deciding whom to vote for, calling
your parents in the evening, waving to your neighbor as you walk to your door, tipping the delivery man,
saying goodnight to someone you love. All of that is philosophy. All of it is experience that brings
meaning to the words.