The Stoic
Marc Aurelius Had it All
He also took it all: a plague, dying children, war, and more. You consider that things would be much better if you ruled the world. That you would make sensible changes that dumb politicians wouldn’t. It all seems so practical. Common sense looks so easy in your narrow view. But do you participate in government instead of just riling angrily about it against anyone who opposes you?
At the same time, there is a tendency to expect leaders to be different and grandiose perfect people. The question is how much of the image of heroes of our past hidden in the myth created around them?
For Stoics, Marcus Aurelius is it. He is everything. He shows what the philosophy looks like in action. His journal is an example of applying that practice to your own live. The role of Emperor is enough for leaders to pool insights they can apply. Besides being a supposed figurehead of the philosophy, he was after all only a man with a job (contemptuous expression).
The most common excuse when you see someone succeeding is to discount it by say, ‘must be nice’ or ‘I could do that too if I had all that money or time’. That is a fallacy. For yourself, a positive investment is a good first step (starting school, applying to a new job, a gym membership). The next step is where you fall short. Consistent execution, living it out is where you too often lose your steam.
Or when you don’t succeed, excuses shift the blame when it would be more noble to take your lumps.
To bring it all together, you can become the difference-if you desire it-you want in the world, lead gracefully, or even exemplify daily excellence by getting up in the morning with the reminder that Marcus kept for himself.
“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
How do you get up in the morning? Do you live your habits regularly? Do you sleep-in instead of living each day as you should?
I admittedly have difficulty in the mornings. I am slow and ineffective. I forget coffee mugs, or my lunch is in the fridge and not in my bag. I try to be better.
Habit Forming
If all of the self-help books and websites say the same thing there has to be some truth to it. If you look everywhere and try every method and still come up with the same root cause then there has to be value in that too. Success in life starts with just that: how it starts.
James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits lays it out better than most others that I have seen. His straightforward and matter-of-fact language and practical advice cuts through the rest of the marketing and gimmicks other books mire in.
Below are the steps James Clear states are important to making a good habit and how I see them applying to the Stoic rising in the morning:
Make it obvious- Your cue is the want to exhibit arete, excellence, in your daily life as a Stoic.
Make it attractive- Some of us are built for morning workouts, others are not, but your scope has to widen. The craving you fulfill is in the reassurance that you are taking advantage of your borrowed time.
Make it easy- Do not allow your short minded judgements to take over. Move before you need to convince yourself of your readiness to get up. The first few times may be difficult. A random Wednesday might take effort, but you will get better.
Make it satisfying- Are you in this life for rewards? Is that what you need? As Marcus Aurelius said about the third thing, be satisfied with the doing.
Morning routines aren’t the only thing, but it is difficult to take advantage of time afforded during the day if you are left to play catch-up the entire time.
The Poetic
Style Points
One of the hard and fast rules you should break once you developed a grasp of it is formatting your sentences correctly. Thoughts go towards e e cummings or Emily Dickinson for their idiosyncratic ways of capitalization, or lack of. The spaces between words, or even within the words themselves can all make metaphor and meaning in your poem.
One of the first things people do when they try to write poetry for the first time is randomly break their lines with little reason.
In art it is all about intention. Intention is the difference between your kid’s fridge painting and a Jackson Pollock.
Make your spaces and letters and their size on the page mean something. I am wary of too much description and direction in the teaching of poetry beyond the basics of foot, meter, and conventions. Stylistic choices of good poetry have to come organically even if they might evolve from critique.
There is still some mysticism in it for me. Going too far into recommending or changing these choices feels close to spoiling the trick.
Often in my own poetry I play with capitalization to begin another line within a current one as a substitute for punctuation. It is experimentation for enjambment.
Most of your poetry should be play. The work comes in editing I think.
Thank you
and continue reading. I am happy that I can still do these regularly enough.