2020-09-28
29 分钟Pushkin.
We all have bad days.
Our laptops die, our relationships fail, our bosses let us go.
I'll freely admit that I sometimes get weighed down by it all.
That all those bad events can make me feel like I'm a long way from my goal of being happier.
And that's when I try to think of James Stockdale.
and a particularly bad day in his military career.
It was September 9th, 1965.
James was flying his jet low over North Vietnam.
Stockdale was hit by enemy fire and had to eject.
As he parachuted down to Earth,
he recognized that he was enjoying probably his final seconds of freedom and that the next five years minimum would be hell.
He was looking at beatings, torture, and a long imprisonment.
But as enemy soldiers on the ground took shots at the pilot,
ripping his parachute, Stockdale gave himself a bit of a pep talk.
He whispered, I'm entering the world of Epictetus.
Epictetus was born into slavery 2,000 years ago.
His Roman master permitted him to study an ancient philosophy called Stoicism.
Eventually, Epictetus gained his freedom.
and became one of the most important stoic philosophers in history.