Seneca explores irony

 Today Seneca talks to us about several examples of irony, though he doesn't call it that. Yesterday, he told us that if we stop and talk to ourselves about things, we'll come to some interesting conclusions. And today, he tells us some of them. He says, "He will say, 'Whatever I have hitherto done I wish were undone: when I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people: whatever I have longed for seems to have been what my enemies would pray might befall me: good heaven, how far more endurable what I have feared seems to be that what I have lusted after. I have been at enmity with many men, and have changed my dislike of them into friendship, if friendship can exist between bad men: yet I have not yet become reconciled to myself."

Pretty much every sentence is ironic. He wishes he could undo everything he's done, now that he looks back on his life with wisdom. When he thinks about what he has said, he envies dumb people. This probably means mute people who can't talk, but it works if you take it to mean stupid people, too. Like St Aquinas, he looks at all the wisdom he has stated throughout his life and calls it foolishness. He longed for things that hurt him. He made friends with his human enemies, but not with himself. Even Taylor Swift sings about a similar idea when she says "I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror."

Let's learn from Seneca's diatribe here and be slow to speak and quick to listen. That way we can avoid much of the things he regrets late in life.

See you tomorrow!