“Thinking on the marginal aspects of life leads to serenity”
Yes,absolutely. And the fear of fear leads to paralytic docility which opens the door for those who would control our every move. Stride on Stoics, we are the saviors of the human spirit!
Yes! I almost died in a flash flood around 2015 and had a few weeks of being deliriously grateful for life — the pleasant things and wonderful people as well as all life's minituatea and annoyances and assholes. Then I went back to normal. Normal is so flat, so unjustifiably ungrateful given the grand gift of existence.
My use of anchoring and memento mori and other Stoic techniques are attempts to hold on to that gratitude and reframe, to remind myself when the immediacy of discomfort deludes me.
"I have seen this same sort of forgetfulness in others who lose someone close to them and respond by treating those around them with a renewed compassion, only for this compassion to dissipate as the memory of death fades. I too begin to take things for granted, shaking my head at minor inconveniences."
100% Andrew, something about our nature simply doesn't want to think on these aspects, and I fall for it every time time until, like you, I think about the past, or open Epictetus or Seneca or Marcus and wake up.
“Compared to the hell that so many who have come before us have endured, what is unbearable about any of this?”
Something I can make use of today. Great article Sam.
Thanks brother
“Thinking on the marginal aspects of life leads to serenity”
Yes,absolutely. And the fear of fear leads to paralytic docility which opens the door for those who would control our every move. Stride on Stoics, we are the saviors of the human spirit!
Peace.
You just went one layer deeper by identifying the downstream effects of reckless fear - slavery. I could not agree with you more.
Yes! I almost died in a flash flood around 2015 and had a few weeks of being deliriously grateful for life — the pleasant things and wonderful people as well as all life's minituatea and annoyances and assholes. Then I went back to normal. Normal is so flat, so unjustifiably ungrateful given the grand gift of existence.
My use of anchoring and memento mori and other Stoic techniques are attempts to hold on to that gratitude and reframe, to remind myself when the immediacy of discomfort deludes me.
"I have seen this same sort of forgetfulness in others who lose someone close to them and respond by treating those around them with a renewed compassion, only for this compassion to dissipate as the memory of death fades. I too begin to take things for granted, shaking my head at minor inconveniences."
100% Andrew, something about our nature simply doesn't want to think on these aspects, and I fall for it every time time until, like you, I think about the past, or open Epictetus or Seneca or Marcus and wake up.