“Some things are up to us and some are not up to us.” This strikes me as both extremely true and extremely obvious. Of course some things are up to us and some aren’t. I traveled two thousand miles for this? But that single sentence expresses the essence of Stoicism. We live in an age where we’re told everything is up to us. If you’re not smarter or richer or thinner it’s because you’re not trying hard enough. If you get sick, it’s because of something you ate, or didn’t eat, or a medical test you failed to get, or did get, or an exercise you didn’t do, or overdid, or a vitamin you did or did
...more
