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(From my diary for my "Happiness" course)
Reading all this Stoicism is having an effect on me (actually, I used to be a pretty heavy Stoic some years age, but that's another story). I was determined to at least not let little things bother me. The first little thing was an itch in my left nipple. The problem with itching there is that if you try to scratch it, you look like Tarkan ("Aaaay, ay unutuldum ..."). It's difficult to concentrate on Thomas Hobbes with an itchy nipple - as Confucius said, "a brave man can withstand torture, but no one can withstand an itch" - but I kind of managed it.
After classes finished I went to the bank to get some sterling out of my account. I had to wait in a queue for half an hour, which meant I missed the ring service, then when I finally got to the front of the queue, it turned out that although tey had put aside the cash as I had requested on Friday, they's made a mistake and given it to someone else. The girl at the desk looked like she thought I was going to bite her, but I reminded myself tat anger is a sign of stupidity, and accepted her apology with a smile. Lots of Stoic points for Robin!
Then I started to get diarrhea. I went to the library to find some books on Stoicism etc. and found that none of the toilets in B block had any toilet paper. So I grabbed my books quickly and went back to A block, to find that all the toilets there had signs on saying "Out of order: please use the toilets in B block." "Ay ay" indeed, plus "Of", "Oy" and other things I can't type here. Anyway, I thought, "Come on Robin, here you are reading all this Stoicism and disturbing your soul with a little thing like not being able to find a toilet. As Epictetus might have put it, "Diarrhea is a hindrance to the bottom, but not to your ability to choose." To my surprise, this worked, and I was able to avoid both pain in the body and trouble in the soul (as Epicurus defined pleasure, though to call this pleasure would be a bit of an exaggeration).
My iron Stoic Will collapsed recently, though, as I'm supposed to be doing hapkido this evening. Given the state of my bowels, I decided to stop being a Stoic and be an Epicurean for the night. I'm sure Marcus Aurelius would have gone and done his martial exercises whatever state his body was in. That's probably why he died at the age of fifty-eight.
Reading all this Stoicism is having an effect on me (actually, I used to be a pretty heavy Stoic some years age, but that's another story). I was determined to at least not let little things bother me. The first little thing was an itch in my left nipple. The problem with itching there is that if you try to scratch it, you look like Tarkan ("Aaaay, ay unutuldum ..."). It's difficult to concentrate on Thomas Hobbes with an itchy nipple - as Confucius said, "a brave man can withstand torture, but no one can withstand an itch" - but I kind of managed it.
After classes finished I went to the bank to get some sterling out of my account. I had to wait in a queue for half an hour, which meant I missed the ring service, then when I finally got to the front of the queue, it turned out that although tey had put aside the cash as I had requested on Friday, they's made a mistake and given it to someone else. The girl at the desk looked like she thought I was going to bite her, but I reminded myself tat anger is a sign of stupidity, and accepted her apology with a smile. Lots of Stoic points for Robin!
Then I started to get diarrhea. I went to the library to find some books on Stoicism etc. and found that none of the toilets in B block had any toilet paper. So I grabbed my books quickly and went back to A block, to find that all the toilets there had signs on saying "Out of order: please use the toilets in B block." "Ay ay" indeed, plus "Of", "Oy" and other things I can't type here. Anyway, I thought, "Come on Robin, here you are reading all this Stoicism and disturbing your soul with a little thing like not being able to find a toilet. As Epictetus might have put it, "Diarrhea is a hindrance to the bottom, but not to your ability to choose." To my surprise, this worked, and I was able to avoid both pain in the body and trouble in the soul (as Epicurus defined pleasure, though to call this pleasure would be a bit of an exaggeration).
My iron Stoic Will collapsed recently, though, as I'm supposed to be doing hapkido this evening. Given the state of my bowels, I decided to stop being a Stoic and be an Epicurean for the night. I'm sure Marcus Aurelius would have gone and done his martial exercises whatever state his body was in. That's probably why he died at the age of fifty-eight.
