Stoic Prompt Week 14 (2024)
"Being unexpected adds to the weight of a disaster, and being a surprise has never failed to increase a person's pain. For that reason, nothing should ever be unexpected by us. Our minds should be set out in advance to all things and we shouldn't just consider the normal course of things, but what could actually happen. For is there anything in life that Fortune won't knock off its high horse if it pleases her?" Seneca, Moral Letters, 91.3 A-4
What can I do today to keep drama away?
When I was in the army there were two maxims about predicting outcomes that apparently survive as lessons for today's military. I suspect these are merely contemporary variations on ancient themes expressed by countless men in the ranks as they make observations about outcomes.
One: the enemy gets a vote.
Two: Murphy. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
The thing I can do today to forestall drama is to expect it. I prepare my mind to calibrate my perceptions in anticipation of drama, allowing me to come to better judgments in complicated social situations when spectacle threatens.
