Lay down from this moment a certain character and pattern of behaviour for yourself, which you are to preserve both when you’re alone and when you’re with others.
Epictetus (c.50 – 135), Handbook (33.1)
Downtime
Social distancing.
Men seek for seclusion in the wilderness, by the seashore, or in the mountains – a dream you have cherished only too fondly yourself. But such fancies are wholly unworthy of a philosopher, since at any moment you can choose to retire within yourself. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul; above all, he who possesses resources in himself, which he need only contemplate to secure immediate ease of mind – the ease that is but another word for a well-ordered spirit. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (4.3)
How’s your tsundoku? In our present time of limited distraction, I’m hoping to eat my way through mine.
For tsundoku is the Japanese word for books piling up, unread.
Learned readers will of course appreciate that this is a positive thing.
It’s another of those valuable concepts ( Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, wabi-sabi) that the Japanese have a word for.
More here (Open Culture), here (Wikipedia) and here (BBC).
Main image, photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash
Something quirky for the weekend.
Written and directed by Peter Capaldi, this 22-minute film won the Oscar and BAFTA awards for Best Short Film in 1993/94.
It stars Richard E Grant (as Kafka) and Ken Stott. What’s not to love?
You can read more about the film on Wikipedia and IMDb.
Well worth 22 minutes of your weekend (despite the uncertain quality).
We all should have a reading nook in which to snuggle down and escape into a book.
TheMindCircle.com has some excellent examples, here.
Images: TheMindCircle.com
Give your heart to the trade you have learnt, and draw refreshment from it. Let the rest of your days be spent as one who has wholeheartedly committed his all to the gods, and is thenceforth no man’s master or slave.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (4.31)
I could retreat here.
The Contemporist.com highlights this writer’s studio that’s also home to a 1,700 volume poetry library, designed by architect Eric J. Smith.
Photography by Durston Saylo | Design: Eric J. Smith Architect
I’ve just finished The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray. It opens…
We are going through a great crowd derangement. In public and in private, both online and off, people are behaving in ways that are increasingly irrational, feverish, herd-like and simply unpleasant.”
If you struggle to find a logic to follow in identity politics, if you’re somewhat mystified by the raging debates about gender versus sex, or the rights of actors or writers to present a perspective other than that of their own race-gender-sexuality, then this is the book for you.
As a result, I too found myself googling “European art” and “straight white couple”. I’ve so far resisted the temptation to google Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda video … but, the days are longer in self-isolation.
A valuable, insightful book.
There’s a taster in this interview from Uncommon Knowledge:
Photo by Rob Curran on Unsplash
Leave another’s wrongdoing where it lies.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (9.20)