The ancient Roman Stoics were keen on freedom. There are as many definitions of that word as there are people on the planet, but, in this context, I will use it to simply mean not letting your mind be under anyone else’s control. You may be reading this, thinking that […]
If you are an extrovert, feel free to skip this article. If you are introverted, please read on. This will be important. The world is full of loud people constantly spouting forth ego and ignorance, trying to fit in with social norms, and attempting to impose those same expectations on […]
When I was 17 or 18 years old, one day I sat down and drew a line on a piece of paper. I don’t remember why I did so, but it turned out to be a special moment. At the beginning of the line was a dot, with another about […]
In William B. Irvine’s A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, he uses a term I’d never heard before, especially in connection with Roman philosophers. Yet, after reading his book, then quickly devouring the works of Aurelius, Epictetus, Musonius Rufus, and Seneca, I discovered that […]
The morning meditation of the ancient Roman Stoic and Emperor Marcus Aurelius prepared him for his day. His words are important, but I doubt he expected anyone to treat them as a dogmatic ritual to be recited every morning. (Although, he probably wouldn’t have minded it either.) No, it’s not […]
One evening, a guest on a night time talk show caught me a bit off guard. The program is normally about politics and world events, with the occasional pop star guest at the end, promoting their latest film or television series. But this guest, Nick Offerman, famous for being a […]
Being focused on reason, the ancient Roman Stoics exhort us to rely upon it greatly, for if we don’t, we are mere animals; it is because of reason that we have risen above all other species on the planet in terms of dominance. (Although, I think I can honestly state, […]
I never had much use for the word “duty.” It implies an expectation imposed by a higher authority. Doing something because someone told me to do so did not fly once I realized I could think for myself. Whether it is true or not, “duty” to me at least implies […]
We all have vices. Everyone. They range on a spectrum, of course, from either having three packs of sugar in our coffee all the way up to mainlining heroin. In the Stoic context and for our purposes here, there is no need to get into the extremes; we will utilize […]
Being Gen X, I have one foot in the 1900s and the other in the 2000s—straddling the line between a century that began with the introduction of electricity to the average household, and the following century, when the average citizen of any western industrialized nation can have any food from […]
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