I admire tenacity above all things. I feel it brings the best in people and peoples.
It separates mice from men.
The life of Emperor-Stoic Philosopher Marcus Aurelius is testament of a Man who Soldiered on against all odds. Life threw every trial, tribulation and ailment at him. And still he defiantly woke up every morning to Battle Life. He did so without acrimony, without rancor. He lived life like a Man. Thus, he became an example to all Men.
Peace is not out there, but inside each one of us.
Often it’s difficult to reach. Sometimes, quite impossible to do so. But, Peace is found in our inner temple.
Animus in consulendo liber. Spiritul se sfatuieste singur. Consult your own faculties.
The other day, I was watching a Bulgarian movie set during the Balkan Wars predating WW1 by a few short years.
In one scene, an officer gives his men a pep-talk just before going over the top at the Battle of Catalca in 1912. The Bulgarians are about to assault the Turkish trenches. Their officer clearly outlines the battleplan, which is simple. You get out of your trench, you run across the field, and you take the enemy trench. Victory is forward.
“Forward means Freedom! Stopping means Death! If we die, let’s die as Heroes! If you are afraid – go forward! If you have doubts – go forward! If you don’t know what to do – go forward! When your bullets are over, you got the bayonet! If your bayonet breaks, you got hands! If you lose your hands, you have teeth! God and Bulgaria call on us! Bulgarians, Istanbul is before us! If we win, Turkey falls!”
Later on, after a very bloody battle is won by Bulgaria, the same officer writes his wife. He tells her that the next day he will be in the hands of God and that the war is almost won. He writes that Adrianople, Thrace and Macedonia are in Bulgarian hands and that he’s no longer afraid.
He is free.
It is this freedom from fear he speaks of that stoicism is based upon. The man is a stoic. Like myself and many others likeminded. Fear is the mind killer. Fear makes us do stupid stuff. Fear erodes our self-image, makes men into mice. It throws the universe into chaos.
Fear is the great reducer of lives. Fear is the No. 1 digester of souls. And to end on a high note, I shall quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
Only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
FDR, Inaugural Address, 4 March 1933
Götterdämmerung 