Stop And Think

Through history, many philosophers have come to wonder how accurate human interpretations of reality really are. Nietzsche questioned the objectivity of truth in a sense that goes beyond the moral: men have a very limited perspective of the world and shall never obtain a “complete” understanding of an object due to limitations imposed by our senses. Epictetus poses a similar reasoning as he tries to get us to understand that events as they happen are never evil or negative, only our interpretation and judgment of the previous is what gives them shades of pessimism. The Handbook of Epictetus shares a rule that applied can become very interesting: “Remember, you must behave as you do at a banquet. Something is passed around and comes to you: reach out your hand politely and take some. It goes by: do not hold it back. It has not arrived yet: do not stretch you desire on toward it, but wait until it comes to you (section 15).” Life is like a banquet, we must then learn to take the right thing at the right moment, and only for as long as intended. If we hold on to something for too long, when it eventually leaves it will devastate us, but if we only get what is right, then we won’t miss what we didn’t depend on when it leaves. The same happens in life, we are more vulnerable to that which is most dear to us. We must learn to be precise in our desires, for if we ask too much, when given we will not know how to manage, and if we ask too little, we will always desire that of our neighbor. Then the reader comes across a passage concerning our role in the world. The text tells us that “you are an actor in a play, which is as the playwright wants it to be: short if he wants it short, long if he wants it long… What is yours is to play the assigned part well. But to choose it belongs to someone else (section 17).” In brief, what should be inferred is that we do not choose who we are. We choose how we are out of what is chosen for us: how we act it out. Last week I had an enlightening conversation with the school’s priest and he said something very true: “ El problema no es lo que una persona es, sino cómo lo es.” To those of you who didn’t follow, he told me that the problem is never what you are, but how you are. He proceeded to give me an example: being a thief is not in itself the problem, it’s how and why you steal that makes you guilty. We cannot ignore specific conditions that set up the situation for something to happen. Each of us carries a very different role in the play of life, but as different actors, the way in which we carry our role out can either make or break us. In short, it is incorrect to generalize about a situation or a theme, because the conditions will always vary. What is right is to stop and think: what led the situation here, how are we acting out our part in this play of life?