The stress situation was thus framed in the above context. I was crippled (knee broken, partial use of arm); alone; sick (weight down 50 pounds); depressed (not so much from anticipating the next pain as from the prospect of eventually losing my honor and self-respect); and helpless except for will. What conditions could be more appropriate for Epictetus’s admonitions? As a soldier, I had bound myself to a military ethic: Enchiridion 17: Remember that you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the author chooses—if short, then in a short one: if long, then in a long one. If it be his pleasure
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