Are we supposed to bury our feelings, stoics?
Quite not, but we are forced to make some realizations of universal bonds between the matter of the universe proper, the inter-connectedness of things. Why, a turn of fortune here may be good but yield a million dead butterflies across the globe! We must accept some kind of presence within the whole, not at the center, and not necessarily on the fringes either, but in a place dictated by the order of nature.
The order of nature.
We are powerless but to succumb to the order of nature, because any thrashing and splashing against such is ultimately futile. Think of a running stream of water, as of a brook. It works on the rock over time, such that even the dull, strong, implacable rock is worn smooth to the point that it makes less an impact on the current. But we are not stones in the stream at all, but particles in the water, not even with the dignity of a polliwog or a tadpole, but constantly moving along.
"Time and chance happens to them all."
Some have spoken of the practical measure of "negative visualization", almost like when Marcus said of a fine steak that it was merely "dead flesh". This is a tenet from the Cynic school, but has effectiveness in preparing the Stoic for the whims of life and tides of time to do the inevitable death and rot thing.
You might think "I'm a MAGA guy, but I'm also a Baptist, so I need to be hit hard with sin guilt." So you watch MSNBC and CNN, with Morning Joe and all that, Allie hating on Donald hard, talking that hard sh*t. You think, I need to rebuked, lest I become complacent in this world of sin; I need not forget my own sin, because I have to hold to while repenting, in thankfulness of the great gift of mercy in my salvation.
I, so it appears on the natural scale, am in the middle of my course. I can easily say I spend as much time looking forward as I do looking behind, so the candle is lit on both ends, and in that middle juncture, seems to be burning twice as quickly as it should.
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