Nothing Terrible Has Happened to You
Crates of Thebes lesson to Zeno
Zeno was once a very shy individual. Before he had branched out on his own to start the philosophical school we now know as Stoicism, he trained under many philosophers, the Cynic philosopher Crates of Thebes being one of them.
Crates, in an attempt to break Zeno’s shyness, instructed him to walk around the crowded district of Kerameikos with a bowl of lentil soup.
Zeno, feeling like a fool carrying the bowl in the crowded marketplace, attempted to hide the soup under his shawl. We’re told that Crates, observing Zeno’s attempt to hide the soup, walked over and smashed the bowl, dropping soup all over Zeno.
Embarrassed by this and seeing everyone watching him, Zeno attempted to run away. Crates is said to exclaim to Zeno, “Nothing terrible has happened to you”.
Thus was born Zeno’s doctrine of indifference.
The Stoics believed that external things are just things, neutral in their value. It is us who applies value to things in life and it is from these value-judgments that we form the basis of our lives.
Naval Ravikant, the investor and founder of AngelList sums up the sentiment as follows:
“Life is going to play out the way it’s going to play out. There will be some good and some bad. Most of it is actually just up to your interpretation. You’re born, you have a set of sensory experiences, and then you die. How you choose to interpret those experiences is up to you, and different people interpret them in different ways.”
As we grow up and learn to navigate the world, we are told what value things possess. But how often do we actually question these values or where they have come from? To Naval’s very point, people choose to interpret things differently. And therefore, we should be forming our own opinions of what values should be applied to things.
We have the power to determine whether or not something is a positive, negative, or indifference to our lives.
As Marcus Aurelius wrote to remind himself:
“Adorn thyself with simplicity and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice.”
It is important to always keep in mind that when something befalls us, it is us who is applying the value-judgment label of positive, negative, or indifference.
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