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1. I think a lot about the stoics because they had such a radical view of the transient nature of...everything. Epictetus just flat out says that everyone you know is going to die and the sooner you come to grips with that, the sooner you can focus on what really matters.
2. As stated, I think that is fair. But the stoics go further. It isn’t just that you come to grips with this transience, but it Isn’t supposed to bother you. And this is where I tend to side with Aristotle. For Aristotle, to experience what King Priam suffered, the death and
3. ..mutilation of a son is to suffer a harm, something that calls for an emotional response. This is surely correct and the difficult thing is to be moved, but not to become unmoored, to feel and to mourn and to grieve but not to surrender to anguish and to be swept away by
4. ..sorrow. The ancients lived closer to the bone, they had a better sense that suffering and loss are the fabric of life, cruel and inescapable, but also that the tapestry of a good life can still be woven from such cloth. This I find deeply hopeful and comforting.
5. Here again, the stoics go too far, since I don’t think that Socrates on the rack can still be happy simply by retaining command of his prohairesis—his choice or agency. In that sense, I think the cruelty of people can overwhelm a life and blot out the possibility of happiness.
6. But these are exceptional cases and more often than not, we are in the position of Aristotle’s cobbler whose excellence is not determined by the quality of the leathers provided, but by the use that is made of them. If suffering and loss are the fabric of life, they can
7. ..challenge our skill and creativity, but the good life is the one in which we make the most of what we have with the best of the gifts that we have. The accomplishment is less in the results than in the way of doing and being that shows courage in the face of adversity,
8 generosity in the face of need, friendship and connection with the people who share our joys and sorrows, compassion for the unfortunate and unwavering commitment to fairness tempered with equity. All of this is easy to read and it’s easy to say
9. But it is a difficult path to walk and I know that many of you are walking this path now, friends. I don’t think that loss and tragedy happen to teach you because I don’t think things happen for reasons. But this doesn’t mean that there are not profound truths to be learned
10. ... from the parts of life that are closest to the bone.
