It Takes What It Takes
Turning turmoil into triumph
Life is hard. There is no real skirting around this. There is no avoiding it. It is a simple fact of life. While the lives of humans have progressed over the last two thousand years, it doesn’t mean it is no longer hard, it just means we are able to continue to bear it.
But to believe that hardships do not exist, or that we can avoid them is foolish. We must remember that Marcus Aurelius even had to remind himself of this:
“Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it - turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself - so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.”
It would be easy to stop and make excuses. We all think about doing it. We all want to do it. It is not an easy practice to say I will turn this turmoil into triumph. It is not easy to try and see what lesson can be gleaned in the darkest and hardest of times.
But it is possible--and often necessary.
During Marcus’s time as Emperor, it would have been easy to raise taxes on the Roman people to support the ongoing wars and upgrades Rome needed. Instead, he became creative and decided to sell-off valuables from the palace so as to avoid hikes in taxes.
When Seneca was brought back from exile to tutor Nero, he could have turned down the job, or better, once he was freed from exile and saw the vicious character Nero was, could have given up the role of tutoring and left. Instead, he stayed until the very end, hoping that the wisdom he had attained could influence the cruel nature of the child.
Epictetus could have cursed the world when his master twisted his leg and broke it, leaving him with a permanent limp. Instead, he built a resilient mind. Again he could have taken the easy route and retired to live a simple life after the Emperor Domitian exiled him and the other philosophers from Rome--instead he started a school in Nicopolis and worked to teach philosophy until his death.
Life is filled with ups and downs. It is in times of hardship that we learn how our training is applied. Philosophy is two-fold: it is the study of how to live a good life, and then the application of those studies in living the good life.
“To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over,” Marcus writes to himself. “It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.”
There is a phrase reminiscent of this mentality: it takes what it takes.
The job is done when it is done. What goes into achieving that? Each job is different and will require its own amount of energy and effort. But it's accomplished when we’ve done what needs to be done.
“Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it's endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it's unendurable...then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well. Just remember you can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your interest to do so.”
Thank you again for reading and I hope you found this useful. Please feel free to heart, comment, or ask questions about this post. Suggestions are always appreciated and considered.
Until next week,
D.A. DiGerolamo