A search for what’s true 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic stunningly upended life as we knew it, we are pointedly challenged to reconsider what is true and enduring, what is worthy and what isn’t, and the daily questions of “Who will I be today?” and “How shall I act?” Our templates for facing each day have been jiggled at best. 

A time to reconsider 

For many they have been nullified through job loss, financial instability, confinement, sickness, the erosion of certainty and autonomy, and the devastating losses of cherished friends and family members. So, we are back to basics. This is a time to reconsider and reimagine our bedrock principles individually and collectively. However un-sought, in this moment we have an un-paralleled opportunity. 

Am I a Stoic? 

People often ask if I am a Stoic, because I wrote a book The Art of Living giving voice to Epictetus’ Stoic ideas, which have animated my personal and philosophical life for decades. I hope it isn’t heretical to say this, but I do not consider myself to be a Stoic, even a Modern Stoic. 

This is not a rejectionist statement. I simply believe that when Stoicism or any body of ideas, however worthwhile, becomes an -ism, it ossifies rather than evolves. It contracts rather than extends. Politics and power plays emerge. The debates begin: what is authentic Stoicism? Who is an authentic Stoic? What are the boundaries of Stoicism’s canon? Do we give credence only to the texts of the ancient Stoics? And if we attribute ultimate Stoic authority to the ancient writings of Epictetus (via Arrian), Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, et al., are we then forced to view life through a historical cultural lens that none of us moderns can honestly embrace? 

We look for confirmation 

Like all of us I am simply a person trying my best to live my life as well as I can. We muddle our way around and gravitate towards those ideas that appear to address our “preexisting conditions.” We achieve inner coherence and increased ease when we ratify and regularly reaffirm or edit our basic values and ideals. This is where the main ideas that thread through the works of the Stoic founding fathers become valuable in such fraught times as these. 

My five cherry-picked values 

I offer these cherry-picked Stoic values as beneficial hand holds in shifting, uncertain times. They provide a practical and comforting foundation on which to stand as we try to make sense of what is going on around us, while attempting to maintain our personal dignity and to express the noblest expressions of ourselves. As a student of Stoicism you will recognize them. Now, more than ever, is our chance to truly heed them. 

1. Virtue alone is good. All that matters in any given instance is to do what is right, then let go of the outcome, because you can’t control it. 
2. Let our reason be paramount. Feelings, especially fear, dread, envy, bitterness, and rage are typically rooted in cognitive distortions. Be willing to look at those distortions. Peace is on the other side of that. 
3. We always have control over our moral choices and the best life is predicated on embracing and enacting our moral choices across all of life’s vicissitudes. 
4. Our rank in society, our bodies, what other people think, in other words all those countless “externals” aren’t important and needn’t command our attention. Let go of all that. Quit hurting yourself and driving yourself nuts. 
5. What matters is embracing our agency in the current moment and circumstance. 

I wish each of you health, strength, mental clarity, and the inner freedom that is always available to us if we claim it. 

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Sharon Lebell is the author of The Art of Living and is a member of our Advisory Board. 

 

 

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