"You Have To Be Ready."

[Catseye3]

(Excerpted)
In his 91st Letter, Seneca tells Lucilius about his friend Liberalis who is “in some distress at the present moment following the news of the complete destruction of Lyons by fire.” It was a terrible, savage tragedy that calls to mind the images we see on the news all over the world on a day-to-day basis.

Ancient Stoicism was actually a philosophy of action. It did not teach resignation, much less apathy, but realistic acceptance of human vulnerability and making the best of oneself and one’s situation in all circumstances, good and bad alike. Writing about the devastating fire of Lyons, Seneca fully acknowledges the horror of the event. His advice for the future is to cultivate readiness for anything: letting nothing catch you completely unprepared, acknowledging the suddenness and unpredictability of change (think of how the US stock market went from boom to bust in a few days), taking a comprehensive view of human history (think of the rise and fall of empires), recognizing that the rumor mill always exaggerates, and that fortune is no respecter of status or success or wealth. As he says sharply but accurately: “born unequal, we die equal”. Another helpful tactic is to concentrate on the present, neither pinning hopes on the future nor regretting the past, but recognizing that we are fully alive and effective only in the present fleeting moments.

As we grapple now with the kind of foe that the Romans were well familiar with—a global pandemic—we would do well to think of this example. Our job as philosophers is to be prepared. We must never, as Seneca said, find ourselves in that shameful position of saying, “I did not think it could happen.” We can’t do what so many world leaders did as COVID-19 was beginning its exponential spread and look to our neighbors suffering and think, “I’ll be spared. I will be skipped.”

No. We have to be aware. We have to be prepared. We have to care. The fate of one is the fate of all. We are all vulnerable and our ignorance only makes us more so. And we must seize and drink in the present while we can. Don’t let the mob distract you. Don’t take people for granted. Do what you can right now. Before it’s too late.