Get It Together: A Challenge

I need to get my shit together. I use that particular phrase because I've just been introduced to Get Your Shit Together dot org. GYST is a life and death planning site that encourages people to prepare for the fact that you are going to die.  Do you have a Will? A Living Will? Life insurance? Does your significant other know the passwords to important websites? There's a lot to cover. GYST is there to point out that preparation for death involves a fair amount of paperwork.

As a stoic, I'm also supposed to be preparing for death with my mind. To us, death is part of nature and nothing that is natural should be unexpected. Therefore we prepare ourselves for change. We use negative visualization to rehearse loss. As Seneca said, "We live in the middle of things which have all been destined to die. Mortal have you been born, to mortals have you given birth." Personally, I find this rehearsal very calming. Yet, for all the time spent thinking about endings, I have done very little to prepare for my own.

Get Your Shit Together gives me a chance to take a stoic spiritual practice and apply it to paperwork. I can take the steps necessary to alleviate the stress on my wife if an accident were to happen or illness suddenly struck me. I'm issuing a challenge to myself, one that I believe would benefit any practicing stoic. I'm going to get my shit together this year. After all, it's the stoic thing to do. 

Field Handbook

I carry notebooks everywhere. In particular, I use Field Notes 48-page Memo Books to jot down thoughts, remind myself of upcoming projects, and a myriad of other things. This has become a vey useful habit. I take red notebooks to every Red Cross disaster at which I volunteer. That way I have important phone numbers and such at the ready even if the power goes out and my own phone dies. I have a notebook that's just for writing ideas. I'm working on a fantasy novel and who knows when a good idea is going to strike? Most recently, I've begun developing a stoic handbook.

Stoic handbook #1 is a mishmash of quotes, personal thoughts, and drawings that have jumped out at me during my readings. My hope is to tease out some structure and develop a personal go-to handbook that I could use to help guide my day when needed. I figure a best practices notebook would help me when I'm having a less than stellar day and could also help me explain stoicism to people who ask. I still don't have a solid elevator pitch for this philosophy. There are other projects that take precedence, but I thought I'd share this one. Hopefully I'll have more to show in the coming months.

Review: The Emperor's Handbook

The Emperor's Handbook, a new translation of Marcus Aurelius' meditations by the Hicks brothers, is a must for any practicing stoic as well as for anyone who is interested in wisdom literature. Aurelius' writings provide the rare opportunity to share in the daily thoughts of a common stoic. Not common concerning his position as emperor, but common in that he is seriously applying stoic principles to his lived experience. He is not a teacher addressing students nor an old man addressing his protege. His only audience is himself. As such, the Handbook provides a guide for how high a bar stoics should set for their own judgments and actions. This new translation makes Aurelius all the more potent.

Prior to being gifted this translation (thank you Christy) I was using a free version of the Meditations on my Kindle. Here's some practical advice from Emperor Aurelius,

Use thyself even those things that thou doest at first despair of. For the left hand we see, which for the most part lieth idle because not used; yet doth it hold the bridle with more strength than the right, because it hath been used unto it.

Here's that same thought updated for modern eyes,

Practice also the things you don't expect to master. The left hand, clumsy at most things from inexperience, grasps the reins more confidently than the right because it's used to them. (Book 12, 6)

My guess is that the second version came off a bit less stilted, and Marcus is just pumping himself up to practice something he's not a natural at. When his writings are more philosophical and more technical, the difference in impact between the two translations is night and day.

The Emperor's Handbook has helped me to appreciate a strong stoic voice that I had previously dismissed. Before I would read him and think, "I get it, you've read Epictetus ..so have I pal." Then I'd go read Epictetus again. Now I find a brother in the pages. He's a peer who also struggles to live a joyful stoic life in a turbulent world. Every stoic should have this book on their nightstand or next to a favorite reading chair. If you do, Marcus will become a daily counselor and friend.