The joy of the Stoic

Stoic writings are full of strategies to cope with hardships, anger, fear, and other negative emotions. There are many reasons for this. For instance, many Stoics lived under tyranncial rulers. Anyone could be arbitrarily killed or exiled. There was widespread slavery and poverty.

Yet, hidden in all these “how to overcome hardship” narratives, is the joy of the Stoic. There is this deep underlying conviction that life is a festival, a joyous journey.

The festival of life

According to Diogenes Laertius, even before the Stoics, Pythagoras compared life to a festival. He used the festival analogy to call attention to the variety of life experiences.

[Pythagoras] used to compare life to a festival [panêguris]. And as some people came to a festival to contend for the prizes, and others for the purposes of selling their wares, and the rest as spectators; so also in life, the men of slavish dispositions, said he, are born to the pursuit of fame and material gain, but philosophers are seekers after truth. - Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 8.6

It is fascinating to see that a former slave, a lame, poor and exiled Stoic like Epictetus saw life as a festival to be enjoyed.

So why not enjoy the feast and pageant while you are able? Epictetus, Discourses 4.1

We fail to notice the festival that is going on around us. We look for special things to make us happy. But as Marcus Aurelius points out the joy of life is open to us all the time in the form of “the casual grace and charm of nature”, if only we would notice. We can take delight in everyday events:

Almost everything – even if it is only incidental to something else – adds extra pleasure to someone who is sensitive and insightful about how the universe works. The grinning jaws of lions and tigers are as admirable as paintings or sculptures of them. So is the mature beauty of an old man or an old woman, and the loveliness of children. -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.2

Marcus Aurelius further points out that we fail to notice the festival of life and fail to enjoy the pleasures given to us.

Will you never enjoy the sweetness of a loving and affectionate heart? Will you never be fulfilled, wanting nothing from people or things? Or, more time to enjoy them? Or, enjoy them in a more pleasant climate? Or, for people who are easier to get along with? - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.1

And Seneca has this to say:

The human race owes more to the one who laughs than the one who mourns for it. The one who laughs provides a measure of optimism while the one who weeps does so foolishly, giving up all hopes of remedying things. - Seneca, Of Tranquility, 15.

He advises his protege, Lucilius:

Above all, ...make this your business: learn how to feel joy. - Seneca, Moral Letters, 23

Taking time to be joyous

Our minds are constantly preoccupied with worries and anxieties. Stoics offered several antidotes to our problems and Stoicism became associated with how to heroically cope with problems rather than how to be joyous. Somewhere along the line we lost sight of the joy of the Stoic. The Stoics did not simply offer solutions to our problems but implored us to enjoy the festival of life. The joy of living is not in acquiring what we currently don’t have, but in enjoying the festival of life happening around us, right here, right now.

 

 

 

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