Thoughts on Seneca
" No one should undertake a journey by car or walk down the stairs, or say goodbye to a friend, without awareness. " (160)
"Because we are injured most by what we do not expect, and because we must expect everything, we must, proposed Seneca, hold the possibility of disaster in mind at all times." (159-160)
Seneca was a worry wart and a pessimist. I don't really believe in having to think about what could happen to you or others that you love/care for. That's not living. Living is doing what you want and what makes you happy with care and no worry. I don't think it's considered living if you are constantly thinking how a disaster may happen to you or another person. This causes more stress and anxiety, which leads to life followed by negative worrisome thoughts about others and yourself. Also, this type of lifestyle and beliefs can deeply affect your relationship with yourself and others.
You don't want to be that one friend who won't go out on Friday nights because you believe that there are more drunk drivers out on Friday nights. But the truth is that there are drunk drivers out every night. Bad things happen to good people. Bad things happen to bad people. Good things happen to bad people. Things happen. Disasters happen. You can't live life thinking that there is a knife constantly hanging over you head waiting for you or hanging over your friends head waiting for your friend. You got to live life. Everyone worries and stresses and those are two things that will never go away, but you can control how you live. You can't control natural disasters or relationship disasters or any type of disasters. You need to know that things happen, so live in the moment and take each day by day.
“Whatever is going to happen will happen, whether we worry or not.”
― Ana Monnar
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school…it is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically. – Henry David Thoreau
I really love how true you're staying to your beliefs. You're right, we have to live life without freaking out about potential disasters that might happen. But I think Seneca just wanted everyone to acknowledge that bad things happen in the world so that we wouldn't be blindsided when it happened to us - to prepare us sort of. Just an idea! :)
ReplyDeleteI really love your blog (seriously)! It is the same topic that I wrote about, but I like how you stuck to one side and stayed really strong to your beliefs. The short sentences and the figurative language really add to the article feeling powerful and heartfelt. You may want to take a step back for a second and think about the other side of the argument, just so you can understand where he was coming from
ReplyDeleteIf Seneca's philosophy only enhances one's sense of anxiety and dread then I think it's not very useful. That's why it's so important that we all critically engage with our beliefs and others in effort to find - through experimentation - what way of life will really allow us to flourish.
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