I Should Be Able To Eat Raw Veggies...

Here's a Stoic conundrum: If I put greens in a smoothie with fruit and coconut milk it's great. On it's own? I'll cook it, maybe saute it, but I don't like it raw. But it's the same thing whether it's in a smoothie or not. A smoothie just helps me lie to myself. It doesn't taste like spinach. Shouldn't I be able to eat spinach leaves?

Then again I have so many larger flaws to work on maybe I let the spinach slide. At least I'm eating spinach. Besides, it's cheap and it's veg, like Rufus recommends.

Edit: This morning I made one with coconut milk, orange juice, blueberries, bannana and spinach. That's the amount of fruit and veggies I'd eat on a good day normally, and I got it all at breakfast.

* * *

Image, courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net, is public domain. Go figure.

Preferred Indiferent: Something About This Song

This song has always gotten to me:

She released this cover when I was younger and it was one of those songs that just hit me. I've told other people this and they don't get it. Then they'll mention some song that hit them the same way and I don't get it.

Maybe it's context. I was doing something or feeling something when I was young and Ms. Lauper caught me at the right time. I don't know.

Is it Stoic to be obsessed with a song? No. I don't think I'm obsessed, though. I think it's like a favorite painting or a favorite sculpture. Life would go on without it... but it is beautiful.

Will Power and Discipline

I haven't vetted the whole site, but what I have read of Remez Sasson's self improvement blog is very good. He seems to be very honest. He has an openness of mind and a scholarly bent that I don't often find in the self help genre.

His article Will Power and Self Discipline could have been written by a Stoic. I'll let you read it yourself for the particulars, but the gist of it is that we build our willpower by practice. We practice doing things that we don't want to do.

Don't put the dishes off until later; do them now. Don't pay the bills later; pay them now.

He also mixes in some Stoic practice suffering. If you like sugar with your coffee, don't use sugar for a week, for example. This is familiar to us, but maybe the doing of unpleasant chores is less familiar.
We Stoics put ourselves into uncomfortable situations, but I don't know that we emphasize doing uncomfortable things. I don't, anyway.

Mr. Sasson does seem to be looking for at least a token worldly result... maybe I am mistaken about that. Wikipedia tells us that he quit a lucrative bank job to follow his dreams, so maybe not.

It's worth a look.

* * *

Public domain image courtesy of the New York Public Library

Excess

This season is about too much. We eat too much food, we buy too many things... we stuff ourselves and we stuff our houses. When you study a philosophy that teaches you to that "enough" is better than "too much" you begin to see this.

First there's the food. We love each other and we make special foods to give pleasure to each other, and these foods make us fat and lethargic. I don't see many people giving out vegetable trays. It's all candy and cookies.

Then you have the sales. People crowd into stores. People drive aggressively to get there.

And everything is pumpkin flavored.

And what should people get you, if you're a middle class Stoic? You already have it all. You don't want anything else. You don't want half of what you already have.

This is a unique sensation, not wanting anything.

This year I told my kids that they would go through their toys and get rid of whatever they didn't play with anymore to make room for the new toys. I was surprised by how attached they were to things that they hadn't touched in eight months.

"But you haven't seen this since last year..."

"But Daddy, I LOVE this!"

I wasn't cruel about it; we reasoned through the process of letting their things go, and if they really wanted to keep something they did. And they were willing to part with a garbage bag full of things.

When we were done, they said they liked it. The room was cleaner. That's a start.

* * *

Public domain image courtesy of the New York Public Library

I'll Show You What You're Afraid Of

I listened to a podcast about lying by Danger and Play and it opened my eyes to why lying feels so bad. I've always considered lying to be wrong, and I supposed that it felt bad because it's "wrong," but that never really seemed to be a very adequate explanation. Now I know better.

Mike Cernovich, the blog's author, begins with an aphorism: "Show me what you lie about and I'll show you what you fear." He then goes on to tell us that lying isn't just wrong because it harms other people (and by the way, the average person lies 7 times per day), it's harmful to the soul because it is an admission that you are not good enough. You lie because if you don't you fear that you won't be accepted. Lying reinforces your sense of inferiority. That's why habitual liars are such miserable people.

He then challenges us to recall the last time we lied about something, and to figure out why we did it.

I told a person who looks up to me that I did something, when in reality I didn't do that thing. I was lazy, but I didn't want the person to be disappointed with me. So Monday I'm going to do the thing. Will I admit to the person that I lied? I don't think so. Why? Same reason. Something to work on, there...

Mike recommends that we tell the truth more. He doesn't seem to recommend that we NEVER lie, just that we lie less. Sometimes lies are necessary. He says that he still lies sometimes, usually when somebody is bothering him. He'll tell them what they want to hear so that they leave. He says this doesn't demonstrate fear, because he doesn't fear them, he just wants them gone. I'd say that he's afraid of somebody holding him hostage with their mouth and annoying him, but I get his point.

So what is the last thing you lied about? What do you fear?

* * *

Image is public domain