I'm doing the Stoic Week thing this week. It's just a matter of contemplating specific quotations each day. Even though I studied them years ago, and teach about them even, and maybe should have figured this all out long ago, I'm still stuck on the first reading. I'm a slow thinker.
Here's the reading from yesterday - a little bit from the Encheiridion of Epictetus:
Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control. Under our control are conception [the way we define things], intention [the voluntary impulse to act], desire [to get something], aversion [the desire to avoid something], and, in a word, everything that is our own doing; not under our control are our body, our property, reputation, position [or office] in society, and, in a word, everything that is not our own doing.First of all, how is desire under our control? I wonder if desire is the best translation here because I can't control what I desire to have or avoid at all. I can only control whether or not I act on that desire. And with a bit of practice, maybe I might be able to stop some of my desires, or desensitize myself from aversions. But desire is pretty automatic; we desire or are repelled in an instant.
