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Considering Wisdom #57
A weekly newsletter from BobBarnardnm.com
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Please share this with your friends so we can encourage others to consider wisdom.
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Thoughts on the intersection of Society/Culture, Productivity/You, and Wisdom/Knowledge.
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Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. Benjamin Franklin
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I have signed up for a busy year. And it is. It is not a question of how much I get done, but what I don’t do that is my daily reality. I am still figuring out how best to cope with this. I just got back from a weekend meeting in Los Angeles. Flying in and out was, as always, a hassle. I got back at Midnight Sunday and began my catch-up week.
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The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are. Marcus Aurelius
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We live in chaotic, troubling times. How we remain sane in this environment is, at best, difficult. But we control this! As I mentioned last week, Viktor Frankel, who survived four Nazi concentration camps, is the best example of not letting the externalities control us. Our spirit and reactions to the world around us define our happiness and success. It certainly is not money or perceived status.
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Marcus Aurelius states two rules for living our lives that are still relevant today. First, live with an untroubled (worry-free) spirit. This means I must control my mind's responses to the world and everyone in it. I remember the child's saying, "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me." I never understood this as a child because words often hurt- sometimes on purpose and sometimes unintentionally. But I now realize that words can only hurt me if my mind lets them. I control whether my spirit will be troubled by anyone or the world around me.
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Think of this if you see two friends talking and glancing at you. What do you assume? Your mind believes they are talking about you when, in fact, they could be talking about anyone else in or out of the room who will be unhappy, so if we don't control our minds, it is painful.
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The second part of this quote is to look at things for what they are. Is this a part of my reality or external to my existence? I grew up during the Cold War with Russia, where we taught our school children to duck under their desks if we were bombed, but my reality was that this was not a part of my daily reality that I could control. Many were afraid throughout this entire period of history. But looking things in the face means we must see them for what they are, something we can affect or cannot.
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For me, facing things involves making this distinction. For example, how often have you worried or wondered what others think about you throughout your life? It is much easier to face it and realize that you can't control what others think.
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Marcus Aurelius's second statement about looking things in the face leads to his first ideal of having an untroubled spirit.
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1. What troubles your spirit- people, past, future?
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2. How do we know what we are facing?
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1. Make a list of what troubles your spirit.
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2. Reflect on this list and consider what you aren’t facing.
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3. Reflect on why each of the items troubles your spirit.
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