Seneca,

Your point today on how we handle “future” philosophy is well taken.  It is an easy and all too common excuse to put off what we know we should do for some later date, but as you said, “Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man’s power to live long.”

There is certainly motivation enough in the words of the classic Stoics, but most of us are too frightened to embrace them wholesale.  Indeed, we do all manner of mental gymnastics to try and justify to ourselves that we can cut out whole chunks of it, and be left with something just as valuable.

But that’s not the case, is it?

Indeed, no.  In fact, the lie that we can remove the hardship, or (even worse yet) that they Stoics didn’t mean what they said meant, and still have Stoicism proper is the common stance today.  I, too, know what I need to do.  But I’m putting it off, fiddling about with half-way measures and excuses, distracting myself with studies and readings.

It is fair to say I’ve made some progress, myself.  But that progress has been stalled, or plateaued for some time.  Maybe, even, it has slipped back somewhat in the past couple months.  I need a firm kick in the butt, some focus and motivation.

Seven weeks into our letters, and I’ve seen it a number of times.  Yet… still stalled.

Farewell.

Part of Michel Daw’s Reading Plan of Seneca’s Letters.