“Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother (not in the physical sense, but as a fellow creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine); therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet or eyelids, or the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law – and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction.”

I’m setting myself the challenge of posting something everyday. I wasn’t sure what to write today but I read a couple of good blogs that talked about philosophy and it gave me the inspiration for this.

So, like, something Daddy did for me and my brothers is give us a copy (actual paperback book rather than digital) of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations when he felt we were ready. I got mine for my 14th birthday, which kind of sucked bc my brothers both got theirs for their 13th. Daddy’s request was we read it as best we could and come back to it later and see if we could better understand the bits that we didn’t get b4 and see if we still felt the same way about the bits we felt we understood originally. When I pressed him about it, Daddy did say he thought that maybe he had my brothers read it too early so held back with me, plus he had me reading snippets from Epictetus at 13 and thinking about them and we would discuss them after going for long runs together so maybe he was trying a different strategy with me bc he saw – and I don’t want to brag – that I was better at understanding the Stoics than my big brothers. TBH, they are awesome at life and I suck, so stoicism is more useful to me! :b

The quote above is one of my fav quotes of all time, and, for me, one of the hardest to learn. Daddy used to have it above his desk at work (might still do).

In life today we seem to be at war with each other over random sh*t. The culture war/cancel culture/woke/left v right/whether toilet paper should go over or under (ok, kidding about the last one – what sick monster goes under with toilet paper!!!). People are people. And suck. And are mean. And are hateable. And are hateful. But – to quote one of the most insightful TV shows of recent years (Hazbin Hotel – totally love it), “We’re all living in the same sh*t sandwich”. People can also be beautiful, and wonderful, and incredible. And, honestly, I am trying really, really, really hard to see it. I hate other people. Full disclosure, I kind of hate myself too. But at their best, people can move me to tears. I read people’s blogs on here and want to hug them bc I understand their pain or they seem so nice or they seem so lost. The world, according to Schopenhauer, is a place of punishment, much like a prison. Impressed a teenage girl can quote German philosophers? I came across the quote in a novel. About a cat who is solving a crime!!! Hah! I’m totes low brow! 🙂

I guess, what I am trying to say is, try to be nice to other people. We are all hurting or lost or in need of others, even snarling little critters like me who don’t let others get close. People matter.