Stoic Prompt Week 3 (2024)
"On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind. I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I am going to do what I am made for, the very things for which I was put into this world. Or was I made for this, to snuggle under the covers and keep warm? It is so pleasurable. Were you then made for pleasure? In short, to be coddled or to exert yourself." Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.1
Am I doing work that matters?
Am I doing the work that matters? That is a complicated question. At first blush I would be inclined to say . . . No. When I was working it was merely a vocation, a lucrative one, but a means towards an end with few socially redeeming qualities that were intrinsic to the work. Yet on further reflection, I change my answer to, YES. My work provided materially for my family and gave my children the platform from which they could launch successfully into this world. So... yes. The work I did mattered.
What about in retirement? I think, once again, the answer is: yes. It is important to show my children the path to a good death. I am the primary beneficiary of the work, but hopefully it bespeaks legacy. A legacy that shows my progeny a way to an examined life. A life of little regret and a life of knowing that which we control is only our mind not our body. My journal is not the legacy; the legacy is the writing of the journal itself. Taking stock. Writing it for myself. For clarity.
Stoic Don'ts
1. Don't be overheard complaining not even to yourself - Marcus Aurelius
2. Don't talk more than you listen - Zeno
3. Don't tie your identity to things that you own - Epictetus
4. Don't compare yourself to others - Seneca
5. Don't suffer imagined troubles - Seneca
6. Don't suffer before you need to. Those things will happen, or they will not - Seneca
7. Don't overindulge in food or drink - Musonius
