I woke up at 4 am. And immediately started thinking about These Challenging Times and what Those People Are Doing to America.
That’s a recipe for disaster and insomnia.
For some reason — probably because I say it over and over to myself in my head! — I remembered how the Stoics look at things. What’s inside your control? Your thoughts, mostly. What’s outside of your control? Everything else. If you’re disturbed, it’s probably because you’re focusing on things outside of your control.
Me? Disturbed? Check.
What is wrong with me?
I am working on the wrong side of the Stoic equation. I am putting my intellectual and emotional energy into things outside my control: biological (the damn virus thing) and political forces (the presidential election); the behavior of fallible humans. There’s not a damn thing I can do about them.
What is within my control? My own thoughts. My own actions. So I lay there and remembered the spiritual principles in action. The next thing I remember is looking at my clock to see it was 6:30 am and time for a cup of coffee.
The saying goes “Strike while the iron is hot.” The point is to keep the iron hot. The first thing to go is the reading. It’s time to pick up Seneca again and keep in (spiritual) shape.