Step 5 (I think) (stoic stuff)

 I'm doing a bunch of posts during coffee time in early June. If you think this one looks like I was just trying to cover up multiple layers of mess - you are correct. Sometimes I end up liking these overworked monstrosities. Of course, there was also the added layer of using up the stamps. I don't think I ever decided how I felt about this one. In case you can't see it - the name Kate Riley is layered.

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During my doldrums (which are long gone), I received some lovely emails and snail mails - and it was comforting to know that people cared about my condition. Some people said they were feeling the same way. Now that I am back on track I hope all y'all know that I am still having moments when the news of the day tries to yank me off my track. I don't expect the *universal condition* to be resolved in my lifetime.

Even though I have whined about the stoicism-fad-du-jour, I am going to share some of the blurbs that remind me why I can stay on track when I feel the doldrums approaching. This is from the Daily Stoic - I like the reminder at the end to look after each other. 

The virus doesn’t care. 

It doesn’t care that you love visiting your grandmother. It doesn’t care that you recently finished chemotherapy. It doesn’t care about the collateral damage. It doesn’t care about your theories or your political beliefs. It doesn’t care about anything.

And for the “virus” we can plug in lots of things. Fate. Death. Tyrants. Time. The economy. Creative destruction. As the Tim McGraw song says, the highway don’t care. It doesn’t care that you’re a good person. It doesn’t care that you looked down at your phone for just one second. It doesn’t care that you had your whole life in front of you. 

In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius quotes a long-lost fragment from Euripides. Why should you be angry at the world, he says, as if the world would notice. The world doesn’t care that it broke your heart. The world doesn’t care that you really, really needed something. Fate and fortune are indifferent. Objective. Merciless. They just keep marching on. 

We can get upset about this. We can take it personally. But why? This doesn’t change anything either...except to make us extra unhappy on top. All we can do is accept what they are and what they represent. All we can do is fight to protect ourselves and the people we care about. All we can do is continue to hold ourselves to the standards we believe in. All we can do is live while we can.