Yellow
Daily Photo kitt decided around 19:48 on 23 February 2017 to publish this:Seriously, one of my favorite flower colors.
Daily Stoic Mailing List
Blog Posted by kitt at 18:28 on 22 February 2017Okay, so, I've recently subscribed to the Daily Stoic mailing list. During the week, an email with parts of the book is (nominally) sent out to subscribers. I have the book, and have been reading it, often not just the day's entry, but forward and backward in different lengths of forward and backward. I am appreciating the balance I'm starting to find with the daily reminders.
The only part I'm not so thrilled with is that I can't find the archives of the mailing list. I suspect only a fraction of the book is sent out, as the emails don't match the entries in the book, and that at some point that "only part" will become "two parts" with the second one being the list repeats itself. Or maybe not, if I embrace the reminders.
Anyway, here are a couple of the recent ones that I haven't archived from my inbox yet.
Someone says something about you and you get rattled for the day. Your son or daughter lashes out at you—and your week is thrown off. You overhear someone saying something about your appearance—and it gets to you. Your boss lays into you—and now you’re anxious and insecure. All of us—every single one of us—have experienced this. No one is immune to the judgments of others.
And yet: Why do we put so much stock in what others say? Marcus has a clever observation: “We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” It’s true isn’t it? We’re generally selfish people but the one thing we value more than ourselves is other people’s opinion about us. And this ridiculous contradiction causes us so much misery.
One of stoicism’s fundamental principles is that we all have a “citadel of the self”: a fortress that we’re constantly building and strengthening. That fortress can only be breached by us, when we let an opinion or a thought go past the walls. Whether that happens—whether we give ourselves over to someone else’s judgment, opinion, slur, thought, action—is a choice.
Nothing outside of your own thoughts can affect you—if you choose. No one’s opinion of you can shake you—if you don’t allow yourself to be affected by it.
Viktor Frankl, the Holocaust survivor, observed three universal facts about human existence. They are not immediately uplifting, so please close this email if you were expecting light and fluffy inspiration. He said, “There is no human being who may say that he has not failed, that he does not suffer, and that he will not die.”
It is this “Tragic Triad” that defines every one of our lives, does it not? That might seem like reason for despair. Suffering, failure and death.
The Stoics say that it is not. These are simply objective truths—it’s our perceptions that look at them and say: “It’s unfair.” “It’s sad.” “I must try to escape it.”
Instead of judging this reality, we should say instead, “Ok, if that’s how it is, I will try to make the most of my lot.” If we do this, we will find—though certainly not easily—that it is from failure, struggle and death that meaning is produced. It’s death that gives life urgency. It’s failure that teaches us lessons. It’s suffering that shows us who we are.
Don’t run from these three facts. Don’t label them tragic. Face them.
People have strong opinions about what is good and bad, positive or negative in life. Yet if you ask most of them what they’re working towards, what their grand strategy for life actually is—what philosophy they’re guided by—most can’t answer.
This is a contradiction. If you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish or what’s important to you—today or in life as a whole—you have no idea whether an event is truly good or bad. As Seneca wrote, “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
Let this email serve as a reminder. Without a clear plan, without a point or purpose to aim for, all your thoughts on good news and bad news, advantages and disadvantages are just pointless speculation.
You have to know what you’re trying to do today—and every day. You have to know what port you’re aiming for. Otherwise, you’re just being blown around. You’re just reacting. And you’ll never end up where you want to be.
Daniele Bolelli is a man of many talents. He is a successful author, a university professor, a professional martial artist and a podcast host (and a philosopher and a father and a historian). You may know him from his cult classic, On the Warrior’s Path, a philosophical exploration of the martial arts or because of his podcasts, The Drunken Taoist and History on Fire. Maybe you’ve even trained under Daniele who holds a fifth degree black belt in kung fu san soo-a style and fought professionally in mixed martial arts (MMA).
In one of his essays Daniele reminds us all “Victory or defeat are largely out of my control, but putting up a good fight… putting up the kind of fight that makes the earth shake and the gods blush… this I can do.”
“I don’t think too many human beings are naturally above caring about victory and defeat. It’s imprinted in us to care about the outcome of our actions. While this may be natural and normal, the problem is that we can never fully control the outcome. Usually, in life there are too many variables at play. So, no matter how mightily we strive or how intense our effort, odds are that at least some of the time we will come up short of our goals. And what makes things even more complicated is that the more attached you are to the outcome, the more tension and fear you will experience at the thought of possibly facing a crushing defeat—which reduces our effectiveness, since part of our energy is trapped in the jaws of fear.
Paradoxically enough, the more you focus on giving your all rather than outcome, the less fear will hold you prisoner. And the less fear holds you prisoner, the higher the odds that you will perform at your peak potential and actually get the outcome you desire. I am fascinated with this idea because it offers a concrete tool to better ourselves. I struggle with this all the time because–like most people–I care deeply about outcomes. So, for me this is an ongoing practice.”
An Obvious Fact
Book Notes Posted by kitt at 21:17 on 19 February 2017Well, this one, too, didn't take me long to read. For some reason I do not understand, I felt like reading five books this week. This means either I'm prioritizing reading well, or I'm working to escape something. Given I've been reading Meditations, too, I'm not escaping, so there's that.
I've also been "watching" (ne, listening) to the Longmire television series and hate, hate, hate what they've done with the Longmire character. He is such an ass in the show And Branch? Stupid rewrite.
ANYWAY. This book.
Loved it. Still enjoying the wit (so many laughs out loud), cultural references (love these, and the rabbit holes of Wikipedia that I go down), and history lessons in these books, with this book being no exception. This time, I wrote down most of the references, because I'm doing that lately. This book is about how Standing Bear goes to race in a vertical-mountain motorbike race near and during Sturgis, and Walt walks into a crime to be solved, even though everyone warns him away. The mystery was well unrolled, making the surrounding character development interesting.
Again, if you're a Longmire fan, keep reading, this is one of the good ones. If you haven't tried the Longmire books yeet, read one of the earlier books to see if you like them. Well, read one of the good ones at least.
Now, on to the extracted quotes and history lessons!
“He’s calling it the Pequod; even ordered up decals to put the name on the side. Now where did he get that name from?”
page 70
Pequod is the name of Moby Dick's Captain Ahab's ship.
"Better than the Andrea Doria.”
page 70
Andrea Doria is an Italian ship that sank in 1956, killing 46 people.
He crossed back and sat, reaching a hand out to Dog, who pulled back a lip, giving his interpretation of the night of the long knives.
page 73
Night of the Long Knives was a Nazi Germany purge from June 30 to July 2, 1934, where the Nazi regime carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Hitler's absolute hold on power in Germany.
Was not expecting that reference in a Longmire book, but it fits with parts of the book.
“Not all fair maidens are worthy of rescue, Walt.”
page 76
Sometimes it was like that, I suppose; some people become so important in your life that they’re almost like a trademark, but then they’re gone. Sometimes they might reappear, but they’re nothing at all like what you’ve assembled in your mind since their departure; sometimes you can’t even stand them anymore, because they break up the legend and nothing dies harder than a good, personal legend.
page 76
“Then don’t you get involved.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
“Planning has nothing to do with it.”
page 78
Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with Lola. Maybe it was just what happens when you finally get something you want and it turns out not to be what you wanted after all. You spend most of the time in life running after things that aren’t that important, and the pursuit becomes more desirable than the prize.
page 100
Friedkin film.
page 110
William Friedkin is the director of The French Connection and The Exorcist.
"'There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.’”
page 158
Quoting Conan Doyle.
... let slip the Dog of War.
page 175
This one is a play on words. "Dog" is the name of Longmire's dog, where "dogs of war" is a quote from Shakesspeare's Julius Caesar, "Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war".
“One of the disadvantages of operating in the contemporary American West is that not all the bad guys have handlebar mustaches.”
page 182
We stared at each other. “Look, I know she hurt your feelings, but do you really think she’s involved in the criminal element of this investigation?” His dark eyes went back to the table. “Why not? What, other than her gender, leads you to believe that she is in any way innocent?”
page 201
This one stopped me because it explicitly calls out Longmire's bias. We all have biases, but how often are they called out, much less accepted?
“You care.”
“Yep, I do.”
“It is one of your most annoying traits. ... Don't change.”
page 202
Herodotus’s The Histories... “I taught world history at Black Hills State.”
“‘Men trust their ears less than their eyes.’”
page 236
Yep, need to add The Histories to my list of books to read. Assuming I can get a "good" translation.
... the fourth estate ...
page 247
... his trophy tied to the headlight a la Marlon Brando in The Wild One.
page 311
Adding watching this movie to my to-do list.
Said With Deliberate Malice
Commentary Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 14:33 on 21 February 2017File this in the I Have Opinions™ folder.
In the Sunday February 12th edition of the Mercury News, there was this article (looks long, it isn't, read it quickly):
Okay, this.
Judges have always been in danger from people who do not like the judgements they deliver. That the loser of an argument usually doesn't like the outcome isn't anything new or surprising.
What is new in this, however, is that the words being said, the words that are inciting potentially very dangerous outcomes, are being said by the person who should be working towards unifying a country, not destroying it.
My first reaction on reading this was, "Wow. Maybe NOW those in society who were previously immune to bullying will begin to understand just how insidious it is." That reaction was quickly tamed by the realization already stated, that judges have always been in danger, this is nothing new.
My second reaction was something along the lines of, "Holy shit. Does Cheetoh not understand that you cannot stand up in a theatre, yell 'FIRE!' and not be responsible for the injuries that result?" If something does happen to one of these judges (you know, actual judges, not Cheetoh's so-called "so-called"), he becomes responsible. If his actions lead to injury, even if he didn't physically commit the act, he is accountable.
I'm still a bit confused about how someone could be so ignorant of the ramifications of his actions. At this point, I will need to assume deliberate malice. This isn't anything close to unintended consequences, this is deliberately pointing the proverbial loaded weapon at the checks and balances that have kept us from destroying ourselves.
Thus far, anyway.