Wrote Marcus Aurelius, quoted in "The Daily Stoic," an audiobook accompanying me as I take a walk — away from all TV sets and computers.
We're having a frabjous Indian Summer right now here in Wisconsin, USA.
November 4, 2020
"Don’t set your mind on things you don’t possess as if they were yours, but count the blessings you actually possess and think how much you would desire them..."
"... if they weren’t already yours. But watch yourself, that you don’t value these things to the point of being troubled if you should lose them."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
49 comments:
That would be Indigenous Persons Seasonal Warmth to you interloping settlers.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/10/lets-choose-a-new-name-for-indian-summer.html
Then God commanded November to brighten the sky and to mitigate the air for the entire duration of Martin's travel.
And since God does not rescind his orders, the first days of November are always cheered by a warm sun. We call this season Indian Summer. link to original
Unitarians in Madison do it Wright.
I've already got mine.
Used to live in University Houses, just down the road...
I used to be a big Meditations fan, reading it multiple times in College and the Army (when I was in it was a popular classic, even being suggested by senior officers).
But ultimately, despite a lot of sound wisdom contained therein, I found myself drifting away from many of its precepts. Fundamentally, I've found pure stoicism and popular stoicism to be a very unhuman way of thinking, this idea of being touched by nothing. It's made more difficult once you see certain things that impact you and make you think, "no...it is definitely better to be alive, to not 'have lost that thing' and realize that some things are worth having, or to do more than accept that something bad albeit natural has occurred."
Stoicism, like armor, can protect you as much as it can imprison you, and one should be careful.
Just bought this book through the Althouse Amazon portal.
The calm before the storm.
Easy to play at being a Stoic when you are Emperor of Rome in its golden years.
Song lyric ignorers are forewarned.
"Calm thou my soul,
Kind Isis, with a noble scorn of life,
Ideal joys, and momentary pains,
That flatter or disturb this waking dream.
Convey me to some peaceful shore,
Where no tumultuous billows roar,
Where life, though joyless, still is calm,
And sweet content is sorrow's balm,
There free from pomp and care to wait,
Forgetting and forgot, the will of fate."
Cleopatra, in "Alexander Balus" (1748), libretto by Thomas Morell, music by Mister Handel.
Narr
I'm partial to Fleming's version
Up to confirm what I expected when I went to bed a few hours ago.
Trump lost. End of story. And I would not take comfort right now in holding the Senate- James will likely lose the Michigan race now, and I think the Democrats will definitely win the Georgia runoff election that is already guaranteed to happen, and the other race could well end up by the end of the count to be a second runoff election- Perdue is at just 50.8%.
While the Republican candidates in both GA Senate races took a combined 50%+ in the elections yesterday, with Trump defeated and the Republicans in Georgia demoralized, the Democrats will surely be prime to win both runoffs, giving them either 50 or 51 Senators come January.
In my opinion, this is an utter disaster for the country. We fully deserve what is coming, I am afraid.
"Frabjous"? That's at least two Lewis Carrollisms Althouse has used lately. The other was "galumphing".
"There may be others," he chortled while chewing on roasted snark.
"Easy to play at being a Stoic when you are Emperor of Rome in its golden years."
I won't cheat and look it up, but my recollection is that MA had plenty to be Stoic about.
Being a stoic is all well and good, but there's no reason to expect that others should be too.
...and hast thou slain the Jabberwock...?
We're having a frabjous Indian Summer
Sufficiently frabjous to wear shorts? Around here (Denver, Colorado), THE look is shorts and a hoodie.
Quoting one of the Stoics is a great way to start the day. I would welcome it as a 'thing' at this blog.
Wow? Wisconsin is now fake absentee ballots central. It is obvious that the China Owned Dems carefully reconstructed their Blue Wall out of fake ballots after saying they were stopping the counts when the number of fakes needed was a known number. It’s time for No Surrender.
"We're having a frabjous Indian Summer right now here in Wisconsin, USA."
Indigenous Summer, please. Based on your Bohemian/Moravian ancestry, I will make an exception and allow "Altweibersommer."
*chortle chortle*
In my opinion, this is an utter disaster for the country.
Look on the bright side. Our relations with China and Iran will get better. /sarc
Can/Will Hunter Biden get back to his international grift for the Biden family coffers?
CIA and FBI don't seem to mind.
On Zoom meeting this morning my colleague in Kenosha made a point of mentioning he got to wear a light jacket today instead of (in his words) “game at Lambeau” style that he needed on Sunday when he and the wife went to vote.
It looks like we are headed for a frabjous divided government.
I don't really have anything profound to add. I was going to go with a biblical reference, in whatsoever state therewith to be content, etc., and then I thought of Browning and a man's reach should exceed his grasp (as in there's nothing wrong with gratitude for what is but yearning for more, SO which is aspirational and what is greed) and then I got fatalistic and heard Janis Joplin singing, freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...and feelin' good was good enough for me.
Not that anyone's looking for me to be profound. I can recommend listening to some Blues music, which I find to be the best accompaniment to all sorts of moods. Right now, it's Samantha Fish and Turn it Up!
All that corruption...just swept away, under the rug....only to be given free reign to do whatever the hell they want to us..... Thanks!! America was great while it lasted.
Great thought/quote and good listening material for a quiet morning walk.
It's like were collectively waiting for the results from a biopsy.
Stoicism and Christianity may overlap here where calm patience and a thankful heart both refocus the mind on our place in the Big Picture. For me, the understanding that no leader can be appointed over a people unless ordained by God. I voted and did my part. Twelve and eight years ago Obama was the guy God needed leading America at the time. His world His ordination. Then Trump. Whoever Heaven ordains this time will prevail this week. I cannot understand His ways, but I do know I did my tiny roll in the process. We all did. Some still are in their lawyerly way. What an interesting year.
Sunny and in the sixties here in upstate NY. (As I told my wife yesterday, "Should be nice weather for the rioting." Of course, with a likely Biden victory, I guess that'll be called off...)
"Don’t set your mind on things you don’t possess as if they were yours"
Funny guy, Marcus. Tell it to Kamala.
To end up in the same place as you, I'm gonna have to take some of your things I don't possess yet. Better yet, have Joe and Kamala take them for me.
To stay with the theme, Trump was the Gracchi.
We know what happened to the Gracchi.
Lovely quote.
Big Mike, the Marcomanni invaded over the Danube and it took Marcus Aurelius more than 10 years to get rid of them. And a terrible plague wiped out a huge portion of the population. And he was depending on his co-emperor Lucius Verus to handle stuff, but Lucius just got drunk and watched the gladiators. And his kid Commodus was a big disappointment.
Mike Duncan had a pretty sweet podcast on Roman history. Here's a compilation of his Marcus episodes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3DVSY_zeE&list=PLmhKTejvqnoOrQOcTY-pxN00BOZTGSWc3&index=19&t=2s
They told us in advance how they were going to steal the election - we can't be surprised that they are doing it. I guess I thought there could maybe be some level of honesty on the Democrat side somewhere, but unfortunately not. I thought maybe we would have 4 years to try to stem the tide of grifters - but when half the country is cheering them on, I guess people are okay with that. Sad days. And it makes you feel powerless. No point in voting anymore - it's just a banana republic now.
You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had.
Four years ago when Trump won I had to talk one of my far left sisters (I have three of them) off the ledge of despair and anger. She was convinced that all manner of liberal hell was about to be unleashed by POTUS Trump. I managed to calm her down by reciting my view that our system was set up, via checks and balances and separation of powers, to prevent despots implementing despotic programs and pogroms. I further explained my faith in this system.
Today I'm saying the same to myself. Not yet convinced though, in large measure because liberals and progressives are unwilling and seemingly incapable of playing fair.
Do keep in mind that Marcus Aurelius was succeeded by Commodus, who was no one’s idea of a good emperor.
I'm afraid I would be troubled if I lost that nine-member Supreme Court.
Since voting is done, shouldn't Durham release that damned report now??
I've read the Meditations (also Epictetus and Seneca) and still think a lot of Marcus Aurelius. While not perfect or without limitations (no philosophy or religion is) it appeals in its total nonreliance on legends or superstition as guides to human behavior in an imperfect world.
The staying power of Stoicism after all this time speaks for itself.
This bit of stoicism of course does not apply to reparations, either legislated or looted.
We're into the fall rain season. The Snoqualmie River has reached Phase 2 flood stage with lowland flooding. The river is flowing at 12,000 cfs. It's expect to peak about 14,000-cfs. This is just the first of many to come flood alerts for the fall/winter season.
Yesterday BTW we had a spectacular sunset here in NJ. I had to walk out onto the dam to see it over the lake. The lit-up clouds extended almost to the zenith. We don't get many like that here.
I was glad to be able to see it.
Now it's time to pulverize those fallen leaves, if I can get my balky lawn mower to start.
"It looks like we are headed for a frabjous divided government.”
Your lips to God’s ear, and with Kamala in place by 2024, Kamala who had to drop out of the primaries before the first vote was taken because nobody liked her...
On the bright side for you guys, 2022 looks like a difficult year for Republicans in the Senate, but the incumbent POTUS usually loses ground in the legislature in the second year, so maybe Republicans can win back the House.
lovely picture.made me remember a korean tv drama called "Secret Garden" that uses the Indian Summer as a nice plot device/theme, so I'm recommending it - It's a nice watch this time of year.
Mother Fucking Lucid Ideas about stoicism. I get the same impression of Zen Buddies, expecting normal people to behave like priests.
The antidote to Dorkus Aurelius stoicism is the Netflix series "Barbarians"
73 In Osceola in Western Wisconsin right now.
I've been sort of stewing over this post since I first read it around quarter after ten (Eastern). First of all, commenting as a person who started working with computers in the days of input via punch cards and punched paper tape, when a computer with a tiny fraction of the power of my iPhone filled a large room and featured a console nearly as complex as the flight deck of a 747, my sense is that if people were not dissatisfied with the status quo and eager to improve things, we would still be living in mud huts and caves. iPhones, iPads, tons of things we take for granted today came about because someone allowed themselves to be dissatisfied.
But more significantly, coming as it did from a person who airily placed herself above the fray, it smacks of a condescending put down to people who invested time and money in Trump's reelection. There are days, Althouse, when you are somewhat below thoughtless.
Blogger Howard said...
The antidote to Dorkus Aurelius stoicism is the Netflix series "Barbarians"
11/4/20, 2:46 PM
I always suspected you liked 'Fiction' (Netflix) over reality.
The reality is that the German Barbarian diaspora has completely eclipsed the Roman stoics.
Post a Comment