A Brief Lesson in Stoicism

I was reminded, just now, that I am indeed very much a practicing Stoic (Marcus Aurelius, Seneca were all famous Stoics etc.) which does not mirror the modern definition of being stoic. In a nutshell, and without reverting to a classic definition, Stoicism is about the art of living, and contemplation.

Examples – walking down the street to pick up my CSA (local farm vegetables, fruits, eggs etc.) on a weekend day, I start looking at every detail in the road, the weeds growing out of the cement, I then contemplate the particularly vivid teal blue mixing with yellow in the sky and think about how people who lived and died tens of thousands of years ago saw such a sky and how lucky I am to be alive right now.

Later, when I am talking to someone close to me, I look into their eyes and think about who they are, that mask-less, mental-less, none experienced Spirit who I share with in my life and how we found each other in whatever means we know each other and I See them, and am thankful for this, since there are those in which you never know when the last time will be (stoics call negative visualization, but its not “negative” in the way we think of that word).

Then, perhaps later on, I can’t help but feel invigorated by the colourful lights in my local pub, and appreciate that feeling of comfort, beauty and modernity they imbue to me, as I sip my Dark n' Stormy (cocktails are a very valid part of this conversation) and love every elongated second of living in ITS moment, its taste- the rum, the ginger, mixing in my mind, illuminating my heart and my belly, making me drunken and happy for that tiny fact of experience.

This is only the tip of the icebergs, but it’s a wonderful world to live enveloping. I feel lust most days, nostalgia and sadness for those lost, regrets around every corner, and have cried numerous times over so many petty, and sometimes profound things, some as a willing participant and some as a witness. I have fallen down the black hole of my own psyche, and control fetishes, and impossible dreams. But sailing around all of these awfully human experiences is this stoic idea of the moment, of appreciation of the final taste, kiss, laugh, fist fight, flight of fancy, misunderstanding or zealous exclamation, of the being in the here and now and allowing that to include the highs and lows of our humanity as we find them, surging up to our brain sensors when we hold your hand, or in the last precious drops of whiskey on our tongue, the entire of civilisation’s (and that which came before and will come again) blue sky swimming in our wake.

~ M. Lucia