#WindsdayWonders: 2024/02/28 -- Let's Reframe! :)

 

WINDSDAY WONDERS

Compiled & Edited by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Editorial Associate: S. A. Sonnenschein

Vol. 3, No. 19: February 28, 2024

 

“Let’s Reframe!”

An Invitation to Explore Stoicism

 

“My Unfolding Journey with Stoicism”

By the Editor

                Stoicism is an ancient school of philosophy founded by the Cypriot sage Zeno of Kition (324-262 BCE) around 300 BCE in Athens, Greece. The Stoic worldview inspired many noteworthy leaders of Classical antiquity and has undergone a renaissance in the opening decades of the 21^st century as people seek to learn anew from the ancient Stoics how to lead their lives in accordance with the “Four Cardinal Virtues” of Stoicism: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude.

                Stoicism shares many intersections with the major spiritual traditions of the world, and it can be practiced within a variety of religious and secular contexts. The teachings of Stoicism can help us train our minds to overcome the challenges of everyday life in the postmodern world, and its practical insights into the human condition can empower us to reevaluate whatever may befall us (either good or ill) from a balanced perspective, using simple logic, sound reasoning, and good old-fashioned common sense.

                A well-known prayer from the 20^th century sums up the essence of Stoicism as it has been practiced by people from all walks of life for 23 centuries:

 

“The Serenity Prayer”

By Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed; courage to change the things which should be changed; and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Amen.

 

                I first encountered Stoic teachings during my undergraduate years at the University of Illinois. Majoring in Classical Philology, with a concentration on the Latin language and literature, I read proverbs and treatises by Stoic philosophers from the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and I found their contents to be both insightful and practical. Moreover, after reading the Stoics, I was impressed to find some echoes of their perennial philosophy embedded in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet, its author, evidently drank from the same wellsprings of wisdom as the Stoics). Elements of Stoicism can also be found in 4 Maccabees (a philosophical homily from the Septuagint Greek Bible); in the Johannine and Pauline writings of the Christian Testament; and in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (a fragmentary early Christian text rediscovered in Egypt during the 1890s and 1940s).

                However, it wasn’t until several years ago, while there was a philosophical colleague working in my department (let’s call her Sibyl), that I began to have a serious interest in Stoic philosophy as a whole. As an academic advisor, Sibyl listened patiently to students as they discussed some of their very challenging circumstances with her, and Sibyl’s reasoned response to almost all of her advisees was simply this: “Let’s reframe.” In other words, let’s look at this situation from a different perspective and see if we can find a solution to these problems by thinking about them in new and creative ways. That reminded me of Stoicism, which encourages us to step back, reflect a while, and look at the world around us in thoughtful, logical ways – similar to the Jedi philosophy from Star Wars and the Vulcan philosophy from Star Trek.

                Although I remain a committed Platonist (as I have been for the past 35 years!), I have learned a great deal from the Stoics that has helped me cope with and overcome various challenges that I’ve had to confront over the last decade or so. I encourage my readers to explore the following resources (both books and websites) and glean some golden insights from the Stoics’ vast fields of knowledge and wisdom. Finally, before you go, be sure to pause for a moment and reflect on some versified Stoic wisdom in this week’s garland of poetry.

 

Recommended Resources on Stoicism

 

Ancient Stoic Wisdom

·         Distichs (Attributed to Cato the Elder)

·         The Dream of Scipio by Marcus Tullius Cicero

·         Writings by Philo of Alexandria

·         Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

·         Orations by Dio Chrysostom

·         Discourses and Enchiridion by Epictetus

·         Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

·         The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

 

Modern Stoic Insights

·         A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine (Oxford UP, 2008)

·         The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman (Portfolio, 2016)

·         Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman (Portfolio, 2020)

 

Websites of Interest

·         https://dailystoic.com/ à The Daily Stoic

·         https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/ à Stoicism @ the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

·         https://press.princeton.edu/series/ancient-wisdom-for-modern-readers à Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers (Highly Recommended Book Series from Princeton University Press)

·         https://traditionalstoicism.com/the-religious-nature-of-stoicism-2/ à The Religious Nature of Stoicism (Insightful Essay)

·         https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=2546945 à Ecclesiastes (Kohelet)

·         https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=4496061 à 4 Maccabees (On the Supremacy of Reason)

·         https://www.gospels.net/mary à Gospel of Mary Magdalene

 

In this image, the apostle Mary Magdalene is wearing a philosopher’s robe while writing her Gospel. Notice the red egg on the table in front of her – a symbol of the Resurrection. (Image Credit: Digital artwork created by the Editor.)

 

“The Heritage”

By Abbie Farwell Brown (1871-1927)

 

No matter what my birth may be,

No matter where my lot is cast,

I am the heir in equity

Of all the precious Past.

 

The art, the science, and the lore

Of all the ages long since dust,

The wisdom of the world in store,

Are mine, all mine in trust.

 

The beauty of the living Earth,

The power of the golden Sun,

The Present, whatsoe’er my birth,

I share with everyone.

 

As much as any man am I

The owner of the working day;

Mine are the minutes as they fly

To save or throw away.

 

And mine the Future to bequeath

Unto the generations new;

I help to shape it with my breath,

Mine as I think or do.

 

Present and Past my heritage,

The Future laid in my control; —

No matter what my name or age,

I am a Master-soul!

 

“If”

By Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

 

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;

If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools:

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son.

 

“Invictus” (“Unconquered”)

By William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

 

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

 

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the intertestamental literature of Second Temple Judaism, and in the Christian Testament, Sophia (Divine Wisdom) is depicted as a maternal figure who gives theosophical instruction to her devotees. In this image, Sophia is wearing a tiara, showing her high status in the Heavenly Court; she is also holding a sacred book, indicating her role as a teacher. (Image Credit: Digital artwork created by the Editor.)

 

“A Psalm of Life” (What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist)

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

 

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream! —

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

 

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

 

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

Find us farther than to-day.

 

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

 

In the world's broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

 

Trust no Future, however pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act, — act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God overhead!

 

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

 

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

 

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

 

“Who Would True Valor See”

By John Bunyan (1628-1688)

Excerpted from Pilgrim’s Progress (1678-1684)

 

Who would true valor see,

Let him come hither;

One here will constant be,

Come wind, come weather.

There’s no discouragement

Shall make him once relent

His first avowed intent

To be a pilgrim.

 

Whoso beset him round

With dismal stories,

Do but themselves confound;

His strength the more is.

No lion can him fright,

He’ll with a giant fight,

But he will have a right

To be a pilgrim.

 

Hobgoblin nor foul fiend

Can daunt his spirit,

He knows he at the end

Shall life inherit.

Then fancies fly away,

He’ll fear not what men say,

He’ll labor night and day

To be a pilgrim.

 

Diotima (pictured above) was an ancient Greek philosopher, priestess, and seer who flourished around 440 BCE. In this image, we see her meeting with her disciples in the stoa – a covered porch in Athens where philosophers would instruct their students. The Stoic school, which began around 300 BCE, recognized that both women and men should study and teach philosophy. (Image Credit: Digital artwork created by the Editor.)