Moral Letters for Modern Times
On Anxiety (Stoic Wisdom 013)
There are more things, Deuteros, apt to worry us than there are to wound us; but we’re harmed in our heads more than by anyone else’s hand
I know you are ready for learning because you have already taken one of life’s main lessons to heart.
Fall seven times and stand up eight
So goes the Japanese proverb, and so also go the lives of the fortunate. It is our fate to fall, and only when it happens do we know how quickly we’ll rise to our feet again.
You may think you are a trooper, able to withstand whatever fate throws at you. Think how reassuring it is to have your faith tested and come out judged a success.
The pandemic closed your workplace, cut you off from your friends, and kept you a prisoner in your house. Everything you didn’t realize you took for granted was whisked away without notice, and in the stillness that remained you noticed that you remained.
Be thankful that you have been subjected to tests that you would never choose to submit to and come out victorious! This shows strength of character more than any course of study alone.
