(독서) Daily Stoic-8월4일NO BLAME, JUST FOCUS

"At this moment you aren't on a journey, but wandering about, being driven from place to place, even though what you seek-to live well-is found in all places. Is there any place more full of confusion than the Forum? Yet even there you can live at peace, if needed."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 28.5b-6a (“지금 이 순간 당신은 여정을 걷고 있는 것이 아니라, 여기저기 떠돌아다니고 있습니다. 당신이 바라는 대로 잘 사는 것이 모든 곳에서 발견될 수 있음에도 불구하고 말입니다. 포럼보다 더 혼란스러운 곳이 있습니까? 그러나 필요한 경우 그곳에서도 평온하게 살 수 있습니다.” – 세네카, ‘도덕적 편지’, 28.5b-6a)     A well-known writer once complained that after becoming successful, wealthy friends were always inviting him to their beautiful, exotic houses. "Come to our home in the south of France," they would say. Or, "Our Swiss ski chalet is a wonderful place to write." The writer traveled the world, living in luxury, hoping to find inspiration and creativity in these inspiring manors and mansions. Yet it rarely happened. There was always the allure of another, better house. There were always distractions, ...

"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 ...

"That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said. Why ponder the existence of nuisance? Such thinking would make you a laughing-stock to the true student of Nature, just as a carpenter or cobbler would laugh if you pointed out the sawdust and chips on the floors of their shops. Yet while those shopkeepers have dustbins for disposal, Nature has no need of them."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.50 ("저 오이는 씁니다. 그러니 버리십시오! 길에 가시가 있다면, 멀리하십시오! 충분히 말했습니다. 왜 귀찮음의 존재를 고민하십니까? 그런 생각은 자연의 진정한 학생에게 웃음거리가 될 것입니다. 마치 목수나 구두장이가 자신들의 작업장 바닥에 있는 톱밥과 나무조각을 지적하는 것을 듣고 웃는 것처럼요. 그러나 그 상점 주인들은 쓰레기통을 가지고 있지만, 자연은 그것을 필요로 하지 않습니다." - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, "명상록", 8.50)   We want things to go perfectly, so we tell ourselves that we'll get started once the conditions are right, or once we have our bearings. When, really, it'd be better to focus on making do with how things actually are.   Marcus reminded himself: "Don't await the perfection of Plato's Republic." He wasn't expecting the world to be exactly the way he wanted it to be, but Marcus knew instinctively, as the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper would later write, that "he alone can do good who knows what things...

"How disgraceful is the lawyer whose dying breath passes while at court, at an advanced age, pleading for unknown litigants and still seeking the approval of ignorant spectators." -SENECA, ON THE BREVITY OF LIFE, 20.2 ("법정에서 여전히 알지도 못하는 소송인들을 변호하며 관객들의 인정을 구하는 변호사가 나이 들어 죽음의 순간을 맞이하는 것은 얼마나 수치스러운 일입니까." -세네카, "인생의 짧음에 대하여", 20.2) Every few years, a sad spectacle is played out in the news. An old millionaire, still lord of his business empire, is taken to court. Share-holders and family members go to court to argue that he is no longer mentally competent to make decisions-that the patriarch is not fit to run his own company and legal affairs. Because this powerful person refused to ever relinquish control or develop a succession plan, he is subjected to one of life's worst humiliations: the public exposure of his most private vulnerabilities.   We must not get so wrapped up in our work that we think we're immune from the reality of aging and life. Who wants to be the person who can never let go? Is there so little meaning in your life that your only pursuit is work until you're eventually carted off in a coffin? Take pride in your work. But it is not all. 몇 년마다, 뉴스에서는 슬픈 광경이 펼쳐집니다. 아직도 자신의 사업 제국을 지배하는 나이든 백만장자가 법정에 서게 됩니다. 주주들과 가족들은 그가 더 이상 정신적으로 결정할 능력이 없다고 주장하며 법정에 갑니다. ...

"Trust me, real joy is a serious thing. Do you think someone can, in the charming expression, blithely dismiss death with an easy disposition? Or swing open the door to poverty, keep pleasures in check, or meditate on the endurance of suffering? The one who is comfortable with turning these thoughts over is truly full of joy, but hardly cheerful. It's exactly such a joy that I would wish for you to possess, for it will never run dry once you've laid claim to its source."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 23.4 ("믿어라, 진정한 기쁨은 심각한 것이다. 매력적인 표현으로 누군가가 쉽게 죽음을 무시할 수 있다고 생각하는가? 가난으로의 문을 열어젖히고, 쾌락을 억제하며, 고통의 인내를 명상할 수 있을까? 이러한 생각을 편안하게 돌려볼 수 있는 사람은 진정으로 기쁨에 가득 차 있지만, 결코 쾌활하지는 않다. 바로 그런 기쁨을 내가 당신이 가지기를 바라는 것이며, 그 기쁨의 원천을 찾아내면 결코 고갈되지 않을 것이다." - 세네카, 도덕적 서신, 23.4)     We throw around the word "joy" casually. "I'm overjoyed at the news." "She's a joy to be around." "It's a joyous occasion." But none of those examples really touches on true joy. They are closer to "cheer" than anything else. Cheerfulness is surface level.   Joy, to Seneca, is a deep state of being. It is what we feel inside us and has little to do with smiles or laughing. So when people say that the Stoics are dour or depressive, they're really missing the point. Who cares if someone is bubbly when times are good? What kind of ...