Daily Advice 11.16.2020

More from Epictetus:

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things. Thus death is nothing terrible, else it would have appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death, that it is terrible. When, therefore, we are hindered or disturbed, or grieved, let us never impute it to others, but to ourselves—that is, to our own views. It is the action of an uninstructed person to reproach others for his own misfortunes; of one entering upon instruction, to reproach himself; and one perfectly instructed, to reproach neither others nor himself.

  

As recently as a year ago, if you had told me about the events of 2020 I would have seen it as an imaginative parody of the modern American's cowardice and germophobia. But here we are. 

If we have any wisdom remaining in us, we will take a moment to listen to the voices of our ancestors, who faced a far harsher world than we with a level of grace and courage that we cannot begin to approach. Death is coming for all of us, without exception.