"Indeed, how could exile be an obstacle to a person's own cultivation, or to attaining virtue when no one has ever been cut off from learning or practicing what is needed by exile?" -MUSONIUS RUFUS, LECTURES, 9.37.30-31, 9.39.1
(정말 추방이 개인의 수양이나 덕을 성취하는 데 장애가 될 수 있을까요? 추방으로 인해 필요한 것을 배우거나 실천하는 것이 차단된 사람은 없었습니다. - 무소니우스 루푸스, 강의, 9.37.30-31, 9.39.1)
Late in his life, after a surgery, Theodore Roosevelt was told he might be confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his days. With his trademark ebullience, he responded, "All right! I can work that way too!"
This is how we can respond to even the most disabling turns of fate by working within whatever room is left. Nothing can prevent us from learning. In fact, difficult situations are often opportunities for their own kinds of learning, even if they're not the kinds of learning we'd have preferred.
Musonius Rufus, for his part, was exiled three times (twice by Nero and once by Vespasian), but being ...
