Build A Life You Aren’t Trying To Flee

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2:42Build a life you aren't trying to flee. Of course, it's lovely to take a vacation. It's lovely to go cool places. Even on the weekend, it's lovely to go places and do things we can't do during the week. But Seneca tells us to be careful. He quotes Lucretius, who said that thus each man flees himself. But then Seneca elaborates, but to what end if he does not escape himself? He pursues and dogs himself as his most tedious companion, and we must realize that our difficulty is not the fault of the places, but of ourselves. We all seem to be traveling from one destination to the next, even when we arrive at our destination.

3:25At lunch, on vacation, we're making plans for dinner. At one tourist attraction, we're excited for the next one. On the beach, we look forward to the pool, and in the pool, we look forward to tomorrow's day at the beach. We, Seneca writes, make one journey after another and change spectacle for spectacle. Be wary of the urge to be constantly on the move. As the Stoics say, you will not find what you are looking for, happiness, joy, serenity, peace, fulfillment, in these externals or in these external places. You can only find it internally because you can't flee yourself. You have to build a life, a self, that you don't want to escape from.

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