“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The gym is shut today for the long weekend. It is an unwelcome change to my routine. I always feel flat if I don’t train in the morning. Lethargic for the entire day.
We sleep in until 06:30.
After breakfast I put the ragù on to cook all day. Pakistani buffalo might be tasty, but it is not tender. At least 8 hours to soften the tissue.
Shell can’t shake her chest infection. She makes an appointment with a local doctor who is based in a hospital. Same as Cambodia, the General Practitioner is not really a thing here. She heads off for a nap and I finish Seneca’s Letters From a Stoic.
“The most exquisite pleasure in the practice of medicine comes from nudging a layman in the direction of terror, then bringing him back to safety again.”
Kurt Vonnegut
Stoicism has gained some traction this last decade or so. Mostly pushed by bearded podcasters who have so much advice on the message the stoics were attempting to deliver. Ryan Holiday has a few books that try and capture the stoic philosophy in a modern context, and to be fair, the books are not too bad. It is shame he comes across as a grifter taking your cash with various memberships and memorabilia.
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Having completed Letters, I think Holiday has missed the mark with his interpretations. Oversimplified, generalised and nauseatingly snake oil saleman for the most part, especially when contextualised with Camus, Weil, Nassbaum and other modern philosophers.
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
I will reserve my final opinion until I read Epictetus and take a second look at Aurelius. I am starting to get the feeling that stoic philosophy is best interpreted by the reader of the original text, provided it is a good translation.
After a trip to the doctor, an x-ray and a blood test, Shell gets the all clear for some more antibiotics. The highlight of the experience was Shell trying to land some codeine under the pretext of some acute pain.
Unsuccessful.
I spend the afternoon switching between Meditations and 1984 while thinking about the left over roquefort.
I get distracted by the death of Henry Kissinger. Christopher Hitchens, one of the truly great minds of our time, exposed Kissinger for the absolute evil he is. Hitchens’ book, The Trial of Henry Kissinger is essential reading. While the media mourns his death at 100, the tragedy is that he was never tried and convicted of war crimes.
“Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.”
Anthony Bourdain
No wine tonight. We have a four day weekend so I might open something tomorrow.