Amazon.com: Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic eBook : Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, HQ, Classics: Kindle Store
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Picking up where I left off with Seneca’s letters to his friend and student, Lucilius Junior, an official in Sicily.
I am summarizing a part of the letter in italics and then responding in normal text.
ON TRAVEL AS A CURE FOR DISCONTENT
You should not be surprised when traveling does not improve your mindset. Fixing your soul is more impactful than changing your surroundings. Then he includes a quote from Virgil, “Lands and towns are left astern, whatever your destination you will be followed by your failings.” Socrates said a similar thing, “How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you? You are saddled with the very thing that drove you away.”
Vacations are nice. I love to visit different places and enjoy time with my wife. If I am having problems before the trip, the trip does not magically cure them. I also have a bad habit of not exercising on vacation and then I have a hard time getting back into the swing of things afterwards.
No matter how much you travel, your internal burdens are still being carried by you. You are restless and like a priestess trying to shake off God, you are trying to shake off your troubles. Your unrest is causing more restlessness, and this restlessness is causing more trouble and it feeds on itself.
I’ve had problems before that made it difficult to sleep, the harder I tried to sleep, the more my mind focused n the problem. This added up over time and eventually not being able to sleep became a self fulfilling prophesy. Once we were able to determine a course of action, I was able to get back to normal. I imagine traveling because of stress is a similar vicious circle.
Once you cure your troubles, then you can enjoy traveling, even if you wind up in a place you would not have chosen. Who you are is more important than where you are. If you can figure this out, you will enjoy places more whether or not they are new to you. As long as you struggle nowhere will feel as though you belong there. Once your struggles are conquered, everywhere will feel like home.
When I am struggling, I cannot enjoy relaxing. Even sitting on my deck, looking at the lake doesn’t feel comfortable. As I have improved my state of mind, I can relax almost anywhere. Today there was a traffic jam and I got cut off because someone just had to get in front of me. I was listening to music and didn’t let it phase me. A couple of years ago and I would have been cussing to myself and not enjoying anything.
You can even learn to live quietly in the Forum. If I had the choice, I would live nowhere near there. It attacks a person’s tranquility like a disease attacks a person’s health. Some people like to live with many struggles, I do not. A strong person can endure, but a wise one will learn how not to invite problems into their life. If you have solved your own problems, it is self defeating to struggle with other people’s problems.
I like a calm life. Even visiting a large city puts me on edge a little. Being si=urrounded by a crowd on the street makes me a little nervous. I am strong enough not to freak out about this, but it is not something I seek out on a regular basis. I also do not like drama in my close circle. Luckily, my wife is a very low drama person. I have had friends with dramatic lives, always rushing from one crisis to the next. That seems to be an exhausting way to live.
“Socrates,‟ they will tell you, “had the Thirty Tyrants standing over him and yet they could not break his spirit.‟
What difference does it make how many masters a man has? Slavery is only one, and yet the person who refuses to let the thought of it affect him is a free man no matter how great the swarm of
masters around him.
I can choose what masters my life. If I allow things outside of my control to dictate my mood, then I control nothing.
Seneca closes the letter with another quote from Epicurus “A consciousness of
wrongdoing is the first step to salvation.” If a person is unaware that what they are doing is wrong, there is no chance of self correction. Some people brag about their problems and faults. Can a person that counts vices as virtues ever solve their problems. It is vital to judge yourself harshly and ensure that you are aware of your faults. That will give you the greatest chance to fix yourself.
I was at a party for one of my son’s friends once and the host told everyone that he bought a shed from Home Depot. He had already loaded it, but they told him to go around back and load his shed. He did and then drove away with 2 sheds. They called him a few days later and he lied until they told him he was on camera loading 2 sheds and if he didn’t return it, they would get him for shoplifting. He told this like it was funny and all his friends laughed. This guy was a high ranking Navy officer, and was not hurting for money. I was flabbergasted that he would do this and also by the fact he bragged and laughed about it. I determined that I would not be friends with him. He got divorced a few years later because he was cheating on his wife. I don’t like people I can’t trust. I am not perfect, but I have a strong sense f right and wrong and I do judge myself harshly.
Music this week concludes Ozzy.
Ozzy with Zakk Wylde has never really impressed me.
I actually like Zakk with the Black Label Society better.
I did like these 2:
A lot of people seem to like his new one, Patient Number 9, but to me it sounds like pop with guitars, like most of Ozzy and Zakk.
You should not be surprised when traveling does not improve your mindset. Fixing your soul is more impactful than changing your surroundings.
YES
I like vacations too, but going someplace doesn’t magically fix your problems.
Though, having said that, sometimes getting away for a brief time will help in fixing your problems.
Being able to set aside those issues for a time provides the space to clear and organize your mind before returning. And it’s easier to do when calm.
I love traveling with my family. Yeah, we still have to come back to our problems, but out of our surroundings I feel like we get a glimpse of what’s possible.
My wife and I have the opposite experience while traveling. After a few days she’s ready to get home to our normal life. Most of the time I’m ready to stay forever.
Mrs. Dean and I are both in the “ready to get home and resume our normal life” camp. Probably because our normal life is pretty much the way we want it.
It all depends on your mindset.
If you travel to get away and hide from your problems, you accomplish nothing and the vacation probably isn’t much fun.
If you use the time away to either fix your perceptions or come up with a plan to deal with it, then it was a worthwile escape.
I don’t think one needs to proactively work on problems while in vacation to fix anything.
The time away can allow the brain to reorganize itself without any conscious thought whatsoever.
I also have a bad habit of not exercising on vacation and then I have a hard time getting back into the swing of things afterwards.
My last several trips I researched gyms I could use while on the road. I found some nice ones. In ND, I trained at a powerlifting gym that ND state ranked powerlifters use. In NV, I found a nice little place not far off the strip. I have a go-to place on the Outer Banks when I’m in NC. I like this place’s King of Prussia location for when I’m in SE PA.
Getting back to the swing of things at my local gym depends on how tired I am from the travelling. It’s worse when I drive.
I’m going to have to take things easy for the first week back in the gym after about 6 weeks on travel. I got in a good gym once at Pendleton, but in general only managed cardio fairly randomly depending on the location. Some places I go to have good facilities, some are fairly limited – but more frequently, my work days are so long that I don’t feel like doing anything serious once I get back to the hotel.
I also do not like drama in my close circle.
#metoo
That’s a pretty quick ticket out of my close circle.
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor – but you do get to tell UCS what to do right?
No.
Once your struggles are conquered, everywhere will feel like home.
I’ve got a ways to go, but that is money.
Thanks, Ron!
Who you are is more important than where you are. – then again Bali is nicer than Mizil
I used to mow my parent’s lawn listening to No Rest for the Wicked.
*points to avatar*
I forgot to mention, I posted a Richmond meetup for lunch on April 1st.
I will be in town for a concert, but am going in early for lunch.
No matter where you go, there you are.
I know a couple people like Mr Two-sheds, always amazed that they are proud of being cheating assholes.
I know, right?
I am more the type to go back to a store after I realized they gave me too much cash.
I have actually done this before.
I was helping one of these guys remodel his bathroom and he was livid when I corrected the Lowes checkout lady that we had 8 sheets of drywall not 6.
I assume Lowe’s wants to give me 25% off when they force me into the self-checkout lane.
If Lowes had a self checkout lane here, I might, might consider going there. But, alas, they have nothing I need and slow service.
Nope.
Even sitting on my deck, looking at the lake doesn’t feel comfortable – have you considered checking your lake privilege?
It is beautiful Oct-May.
Being si=urrounded by a crowd on the street makes me a little nervous – also affects your typing 🙂
That’s what happens when you don’t start typing it until 10:30pm on Thursday.
Stoicism is popular right now, but there are some serious downsides
Stoicism is a big deal right now, but it has some major flaws. Here’s why you might want to hold off on becoming a Stoic.
https://bigthink.com/thinking/stoicism-popular-downsides/
However, it is also true that they explicitly warn against worldly attachments of any kind. Most of us can get on board with discarding vanities like smartphones, luxury clothes, and fast cars. But to be truly Stoic also means never to attach to your country, your friends, your family — or anything. You cannot hold anything too closely. Everything must be treated as disposable (because, ultimately, it will be disposed). So, keep your heart to yourself, and do not love as a lot of people understand it.
Anyone claiming to be Stoic but who also claims to vehemently hold close anything is willfully ignoring what the Stoics were saying. (Heck, even if you get angry about this article, you’re not being Stoic.) Attachment to Stoicism itself — like some tribal dogmatist — is the antithesis of what Stoics argue. At best, Stoics see things like friends, children, and spouses as a “preferred indifferent” — nice to have, but expendable. At worst, they’re viewed as getting in the way.
…
Yet, to do so misses something. The late Queen Elizabeth II once said, “Grief is the price we pay for love.” We can know this fact yet still choose to love, accepting that suffering will follow. Stoic philosophy teaches that attachment leads to suffering. Commitment leads to pain. Yet, Elizabeth II’s quote is another wisdom altogether. It tells us that love is a pain knowingly accepted. No matter how cold, long, and hard the years of grief might be, they are a fair price for even one second of true love known.
For instance, Stoics often repeat the idea that we should accept things that are beyond our control. Yet, traditionally, they did so on the basis of a quasi-religious commitment to a predetermined universe. Stoics believed there was a plan to nature, and so we ought to accede to that. It’s philosophically coherent to take on the belief, “Accept what you cannot change,” while also rejecting the fatalism of Stoic belief.
Yeah, it’s just an easy decision to make and not a process that requires significant effort.
Hey, hey, if modern life is about one thing – it is convenience.
That article uses the straw man of 0 or 1, either you are a Stoic or you are not. It fails to comprehend that adapting some concepts can greatly improve your life. In short, do not let perfection be the enemy of good.
That article reminds me a lot of the “You aren’t a real Libertarian if…” articles and such that float around.
Those articles are pointless.
Obviously you’re not a real libertarian if you don’t agree with me 100% of the time.
Indeed. If you put 2 libertarians in a room, you should get at least 5 differing opinions. Why would Stoicism be any different?
I’ll keep this with the others and plan on going through them here.
The author seems to confuse Stoicism with apathy and indifference. Which is not my understanding of it, based on what ron has kindly shared with us.
I went to breakfast one day, a couple of months ago now, and when I paid, I have no idea what the guy did but he brought me way too much change. Like he was paying me to eat there. So I flagged him down and told him, and we got it sorted out.
It didn’t really even occur to me to just pocket the money and walk out.
Yeah, I’ve had to do that a few times. Once was a young girl who accidentally gave me an extra 20 dollar bill, which I gave back to her. But you know that many people would just happily keep it, even knowing that the poor girl could be fired for it.
Last Saturday we went out to dinner with a couple of friends, and I picked up the check. The waitress brings the hand-written ticket which totaled $195 and change, so I hand her my credit card and she goes to ring it in. She comes back with the electronic print out she rung up the credit card on, and it was only for $95 and change. She forgot to hit the one, or maybe just missed. So I called her back to fix it. I can’t imagine that some people would just sign for the wrong amount and walk out having burned her for $100.
I’ve had bar staff not add certain things to my tab. It’s one thing if they tell me they’re comping something, but another if I get the tab and stuff is missing.
So I tell them and they fix it.
That would really mess her day up with her bosses.
It would come out of her paycheck?
Used to be a 7-11 in town, owned by stereotypes, where you could be certain your change would be a quarter or dime short. “Oh, sorry, not understanding your money so good.”. This went on for at least the five years that Patels owned the place.
Why wouldn’t they just raise the prices?
Charlie Cooke addresses the crazy law proposed in FL that we discussed last night (registering blogs for govt criticism).
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/senator-jason-brodeur-is-a-moron-but-hes-a-solo-moron/
I agree with you about the big cities. Visiting NYC gives me a feeling much like claustrophobia. Everyone else is having a good time while I’m counting the minutes until I can escape.
I need to read the links when I have time as stress is getting to me the past couple of days. Not Adahn was right about this week being a shitshow,
I like NYC. There is a heartbeat under your feet when you’re walking down the street. Now, that is not to say I want to stay there for any length of time. 3 days is my max.
I thought that was rats in the sewers and subway tunnels?
I like it to visit, but I have not been there since 2019, so who knows what it’s like now.
LA used to be more fun, but now it’s a little chaotic.
Been to Yankee Stadium for a game once.
Never been actually to the city, but everytime I’ve driven through or around it, I get a song lyric stuck in my head:
Just send me to hell or New York City, It’ll be about the same to me.
I’ve never been to NYC. I have no interest in checking it out.
I never been either but would want to
London
Dublin
Paris
Toulouse
Amsterdam
Hamburg
Frankfurt
Berlin
Moscow
Guangzhou
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Hong Kong
Sydney.
I’ve been to plenty of big cities. I have no interest in going to any more.
been to 7 of those
I have been to… London, but I didn’t stay there long enough before heading for Nottingham.
On the other hand, I’ve spent enough time in NYC to not want to go back if I can avoid it.
Want to hit Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo again (the last because I’ve only passed through it).
KL was ok in the 90s, haven’t been back in decades.
Sydney felt pretty nice a decade ago (not that large/crowded comparatively – but very pricey).
Would like to hit Europe eventually – other than a week staying outside London, I’ve got no time there.
We did a wonderful trip to London and Edinburgh. If you are a history and outdoors dude, you will love it.
My boss was stationed in London for a while.
I asked him about a few places I would have liked to see, but he hadn’t heard of any of them.
He did like to take his wife to France for shopping though.
Lol.
I know more hiking trails here than some of my neighbors who grew up in CO.
Edinburgh is stunning. Love the Old Town (tha Auld Toon?) near the castle.
Auld Reekie!
I can’t wait to go back. We had so much fun.
London and Dublin plus: Toronto, Vancouver, Lisbon, Zurich and Luzerne. Planning on London and Paris later this year with the family.
Forgot Montreal. But who cares about Canada?
What are Koala Lumps like anyway?
chlamydia
I’ve been to NYC three times, most memorably the first time when I was in high school and got The Grand Cultural Tour. I could see going back IF I could be beamed directly to and from the front steps of the Met Museum.
Went there on my HS senior trip. Went there with Mom and Bro after I graduated from college. Went there for the premiere of Last Airbender (a trip my husband won). The last time, I was invited to be a panelist at the Writer’s Digest conference.
It smells like urine.
This is true.
I agree it is fun to visit and a long weekend/3 days is max for me.
My first visit, my friend in college was interning in Manhattan and a group of us did basically every touristy thing in 3 days: times square, the statue of liberty, ground zero, China Town, Central Park, natural history museum, Governors Island, Wall Street, Radio City/Rockefeller Center, Empire State building and probably missing something. We were ready to kill one another at the end of it.
And San Francisco undoubtedly smells like feces. Do we have a city that smells like vomit so we have all the bases covered?
New Orleans? (Esp during Mardi Gras)
So… avoid the east, west, and Gulf coasts. Got it.
Something about water makes people crazy.
I think it’s the Ameobas.
So what is the problem in Chillicothe?
Don’t know that I’ve ever been to Chillicothe, so I couldn’t say, but I’ll admit that on overcast days, the north side of Dayton smells like corn syrup from the Cargill plant.
New Orleans smells like someone vomited up feces.
And then peed on them?
NYC is like everywhere or anywhere. Once you find out where you fit it’s all the same. What you will find is that in a city like NYC there are many more places that you don’t fit, but there are many other places you didn’t know you fit.
Here’s why you might want to hold off on becoming a Stoic.
“Stoicism is hard,” says Philosophy Barbie. “Let’s all go to the beach.”
Legit lol.
Nicely done, Brooksie!
I was flabbergasted that he would do this and also by the fact he bragged and laughed about it. I determined that I would not be friends with him. He got divorced a few years later because he was cheating on his wife. I don’t like people I can’t trust. I am not perfect, but I have a strong sense f right and wrong and I do judge myself harshly.
I strive to do this. I always hand it back if I’ve received too much change or point out to the cashier if they’ve missed an item scanning. My self-worth isn’t for sale.
Last year, I did run into a cashier who just refused to correct it. I told her I needed X type lumber and she rang up Y type lumber instead. I explained that was too cheap, I want X type, and she confirmed it was X type but kept inputting the cheaper Y type. I pointed out again that what she was inputting the wrong type, but she insisted that it was correct. Pointing out her error two times was sufficient for me to sleep without the whole thing descending into an argument. Clearcut case of “Mansplaining”.
Lol.
https://twitter.com/bizarre_content/status/1631110577635352577/photo/1
I have to agree with this guy:
Also – people who went to trade school instead of college, people who live on farms even though they aren’t full-time farmers…
Concur.
I was wrong about a lot of stuff.
I remember thinking I would never be fat or conservative…
Dude, the Science evolved.
Get with the program.
Yup. The current flavor of consumerist narcissism is unsustainable.
The question in my mind is whether a society of abundance and few social guideposts will always devolve to consumerist narcissism, because monkey brains.
I think of that as a rhetorical question. There must be some strong social guideposts to prevent that.
https://babylonbee.com/news/study-finds-only-001-of-trail-mix-actually-consumed-while-on-a-trail
Heh. It should be called “road trip mix.”
It’s good to munch on while you watch hiking and camping videos on Youtube.
#protip Nothing good comes of googling people you’ve left far behind in your past.
I wonder what Ozti’s up to these days.
Fun fact, the reconstruction of Otzi’s appearance eerily resembled my maternal grandfather.
Oh, you mean the more recent past. Yeah, let that lie.
ex is now a porn star?
Far Behind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FXW7WMSBpk
Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you. — Satchel Paige.
♪♫ “Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then” ♫
The show trial must go on
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday refused to back down on calls to make Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) interim Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz, who is stepping down this month, testify at a hearing on the company’s compliance with labor law.
Starbucks reiterated on Thursday it has no plans to send Schultz to a U.S. Senate committee hearing set for March 9.
In response, Sanders, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s chairman, said he was “shocked and deeply concerned that Howard Schultz would continue to defy a request made by a majority of members on the Senate HELP Committee.”
He said a vote will go ahead on March 8 on whether to issue a subpoena for Schultz to appear.
“Let’s be clear. Howard Schultz is the founder of Starbucks, he is the CEO of Starbucks, he is the spokesperson of Starbucks, and he will continue to be on the Board of Directors at Starbucks well into the future,” Sanders said in a letter Thursday to Starbucks.
“Mr. Schultz has made it clear that he is the driving force of labor policy at Starbucks,” the Democrat senator said.
——-
Democrat lawmakers accuse Starbucks of not engaging in fair negotiations with employees who are joining labor unions. The coffee company has rejected the claims and said it values its workers’ right to participate in legal union-related endeavors.
Bernie should buy a controlling interest in Starbucks. Then he could legitimately set employment policy. But it’s so much easier just to use the power of the state.
If he shows, he will likely answer “The proceedings against Starbucks on labor issues are not concluded, and so on advice of counsel I have nothing to say to this committee.”
That, or “Beats me, I have people for all that.”
Shultz should show and his opening statement should be “I have reason to believe, based on conversations with people familiar with Bill Gates, that Sen. Sanders was a frequent patron of Jeffrey Epstein’s island. But I will stand corrected once the full, un-redacted list of patrons is released to the public.”
We can’t have a struggle session without the repentant heretic!
The Senate committee will also vote on authorizing the panel to investigate labor law violations by major corporations.
Let the ritual public shaming commence!
Public shaming an example to strive for.
I wish we could do this to the COVID regime.
It may not be Stoic, but I do love the idea of tar and feathers.
Lack of accountability is one of our biggest problems.
For KK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YYUhp4ZmqI
“This is a theory bonanza!”
Thanks, db. Enjoying this one.
Hard to remain Stoic sometimes.
I could stoically pull the electrocution lever on a lot of officials.
#metoo
That would be foregoing some very joyful feelings.
I’m willing to sacrifice my happiness for the cause.
I shouldn’t have watched that.
Lack of accountability is one of our biggest problems.
There should be a permanent structure on the steps of the Capitol specifically for the ritual suicide of public officials.
Instead of the eternal flame – the woodchipper of imminent mortality.
Seppuku is the only honorable way for public servants to retire.
Why do I get the feeling we will never hear the truth about this?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11816903/Family-Utah-man-25-say-NEWS-REPORTS-hed-shot-dead.html
I wonder if the victim simply asserted his rights? He was a law student after all.
I’ll take a stab at it.
He knew his rights and refused to exit the vehicle for a bullshit stop.
Cops got all pissy and jumpy.
He reached for an item in his car and one cop shrieked GUN.
They all fired.
Ugh—the comments.
So many “He should have complied.”
Lot of people want to lick boots. To them it’s just an argument over whose boots we should all be licking.
I’ll bet he was reaching for his white privilege card to show them that he doesn’t have to follow any laws. Tragic.
Gilbert Gottfried applauds you from beyond the grave.
For Sensei: Baltimore Idiots in Cars (NSFL)
Wow. Doesn’t give me much confidence in the structural integrity of the buildings, either.
23 months from now
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-army-secretary-lays-out-strategy-for-war-with-china/6985136.html
The strategy should be to have the war drag out, then launch a major offensive when the cheap Chinese equipment starts breaking.
Ours or theirs?
Stupid cunt.