This is What To Do With Joy

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1:30This is what to do with joy. We tend not to see the Stoics as happy people. Marcus Aurelius' meditations is dark, his critics say. Even a fan would concede it's not the lightest fare. Epictetus spoke of the brutality of existence often, mostly because as a slave he knew it well. Seneca, for his part, spoke so much about death there's literally a modern collection of his writings titled How to Die. It's actually quite good, by the way. So where was the room for happiness, for joy, for sucking the marrow out of life. Paradoxically, it was right there in that dark stuff, or rather, it was a product of that dark stuff.

2:08In one of his consolation essays, Seneca, who himself lost a child and was exiled in the same short period, writes to Marcia that she must snatch the pleasures that your children bring. Let your children in turn find delight in you. He says, drain joy to the dregs without delay. No promise has been given you for this night. Nay, I have offered too long a respite, he says. No promise has been given even for this hour. It's because life is unpredictable. It's because nothing is certain that we must find joy and happiness where we can. Enjoy our children, do things that are fun, drink deeply from this moment that you're in.

2:46Because while you're in it, it's about the only certain thing there is.

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