Dead Man Speaking

I love reading the words of dead people.  No, this is not some morbid confession of bizzare graveyard voyerism.  It is merely my affirmation of my love for history.  I am fascinated by the writing of dead Greeks and Romans in particular (while also enjoying the wisdom of Eastern authors).  There is an eriee familiarity in their words.  It is almost as if they faced many of the same personal and political challenges we face today.  I love when they speak of efforts to find meaning, of values, of ethics, of human nature, the quest to live "the good life", even of cruelty, evil and those forces -internal and external- that threaten our felicity.  We do not talk enough of these things today even though they are all pertinent.  Somehow we have let the technological advances, the comforts of affluence, and the narcotic of leisure cloud our minds from the essense of life.  There is something about fighting the overuse of sodium instead of the barbarians at the gates that causes me some concern....  But I am off on a tangent.

Complying with my self-inflicted 2 minute rule for blogging, I have decided to share some short snippets from one of these dead Greek guys, Epictetus.  I commend his book, The Art of Living.  He covers a variety of topics and gives advice ranging from practical to philosophical.  Some I agree with and some I do not but I have learned much from both.  Here is the first installment:

"When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it.
What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them.  It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance."

More to come....