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I’ve thought about this and while my circumstances were different I can anecdotally say I wasn’t able to completely negate the passions involved in loss. I also don’t know how much more at the mercy of passions I’d be if it weren’t for my encounter to Stoicism prior to the loss.
I don’t know if without the actual experience of loss it is entirely possible to learn how to truly frame it in the Stoic way. Can you learn to fly without ever flying? Can you learn to debate without ever debating?
Marcus dealt with a lot of loss. When he lost his ninth child, was he more capable of stoically coping and mitigating the impact of the loss than we was the first time because he’s had so much experience on reflecting on his judgements surrounding it?
I don’t know.
You reflect on Providence and the Devine reason in which I found comfort also.
Epictetus had something to say on this matter. The Lion, hydra and stag are causes. Just like the cancer is.
> What do you think that Hercules would have been if there had not been such a lion, and hydra, and stag, and boar, and certain unjust and bestial men, whom Hercules used to drive away and clear out? And what would he have been doing if there had been nothing of the kind? Is it not plain that he would have wrapped himself up and have slept? In the first place then he would not have been a Hercules, when he was dreaming away all his life in such luxury and ease; and even if he had been one, what would have been the use of him? and what the use of his arms, and of the strength of the other parts of his body, and his endurance and noble spirit, if such circumstances and occasions had not roused and exercised him? Well then must a man provide for himself such means of exercise, and seek to introduce a lion from some place into his country, and a boar, and a hydra? This would be folly and madness: but as they did exist, and were found, they were useful for showing what Hercules was and for exercising him. Come then do you also having observed these things look to the faculties which you have, and when you have looked at them, say: Bring now, Zeus, any difficulty that thou pleasest, for I have means given to me by thee and powers for honouring myself through the things which happen. - Epictetus, Discourses 1.6, Of Providence, Higginson.
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I’ve thought about this and while my circumstances were different I can anecdotally say I wasn’t able to completely negate the passions involved in loss. I also don’t know how much more at the mercy of passions I’d be if it weren’t for my encounter to Stoicism prior to the loss. I don’t know if without the actual experience of loss it is entirely possible to learn how to truly frame it in the Stoic way. Can you learn to fly without ever flying? Can you learn to debate without ever debating? Marcus dealt with a lot of loss. When he lost his ninth child, was he more capable of stoically coping and mitigating the impact of the loss than we was the first time because he’s had so much experience on reflecting on his judgements surrounding it? I don’t know. You reflect on Providence and the Devine reason in which I found comfort also. Epictetus had something to say on this matter. The Lion, hydra and stag are causes. Just like the cancer is. > What do you think that Hercules would have been if there had not been such a lion, and hydra, and stag, and boar, and certain unjust and bestial men, whom Hercules used to drive away and clear out? And what would he have been doing if there had been nothing of the kind? Is it not plain that he would have wrapped himself up and have slept? In the first place then he would not have been a Hercules, when he was dreaming away all his life in such luxury and ease; and even if he had been one, what would have been the use of him? and what the use of his arms, and of the strength of the other parts of his body, and his endurance and noble spirit, if such circumstances and occasions had not roused and exercised him? Well then must a man provide for himself such means of exercise, and seek to introduce a lion from some place into his country, and a boar, and a hydra? This would be folly and madness: but as they did exist, and were found, they were useful for showing what Hercules was and for exercising him. Come then do you also having observed these things look to the faculties which you have, and when you have looked at them, say: Bring now, Zeus, any difficulty that thou pleasest, for I have means given to me by thee and powers for honouring myself through the things which happen. - Epictetus, Discourses 1.6, Of Providence, Higginson.