choosing insanity

 Today Seneca gives us a big clue to happiness. He says, "It is insanity to choose evil instead of good: now no insane person can be happy, and no one can be sane if he regards what is injurious as the highest good and strives to obtain it. The happy man, therefore, is he who can make a right judgment in all things: he is happy who in his present circumstances, whatever they may be, is satisfied and on friendly terms with the conditions of his life. That man is happy whose reason recommends to him the whole posture of his affairs."

So Seneca is arguing (in a sense) with Coelho's advice in the quote above because Coelho says that life is insanity so choose your flavor of insanity wisely. Seneca says that's nonsense and that you can't possibly be truly happy if you're insane. Therefore true happiness, says Seneca, comes in learning to come to terms in a positive way with whatever situation you find yourself in life. That is a core tenet of Stoicism. Accept your life and its circumstances and free yourself of both hope and fear that things will change.

See you tomorrow! (but don't hope about or fear it!)