From his own experience of nearly dying, Montaigne would learn that the best antidote to fear was to rely on nature: ‘Don’t bother your head20 about it.’ From losing La Boétie, he had already discovered that this was the best way of dealing with grief. Nature has its own rhythms. Distraction works well precisely because it accords with how humans are made: ‘Our thoughts are always elsewhere.’ It is only natural for us to lose focus, to slip away from both pains and pleasures, ‘barely brushing the crust’ of them. All we need do is let ourselves be as we are.
