The Dragon Must Be Slain Every Morning

SOURCE: "This is a Command, Not a Mere Reminder,"  The Daily Stoic, February 14, 2020
KEYWORDS:  Resistance, sin, doubt

Like most solo pursuits, the artist’s life is one that ceaselessly tests one's mental fortitude. Steven Pressfield likens it to dragon slaying. The dragon being what he’s coined the “Resistance”—that voice that questions your abilities, your worth, your sanity. “Resistance never sleeps,” Pressfield says. “It never slackens and it never goes away. The dragon must be slain anew every morning.” Anyone who sets out to make a career in the arts is confronted with this reality quickly, if not immediately.

The Difficulty of Being Still

SOURCE:  "Can You Be Still," The Daily Stoic, February 12, 2020.  

KEYWORD:  restless, active, "Don't just stand there. Do something."

SCRIPTURE:  Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God..."

"[Among the lessons found in The Odyssey by Homer is one that is easy to miss.] In fact, in some translations it’s cut off or ignored. What does Odysseus do after nearly ten years of war and then ten more years of struggle to make it home? What does he do shortly after arriving home after having been gone so long that his wife’s hair was grey and his old dog was barely alive? After he slaughtered the invaders in his home and secured his kingdom that he was blocked from for so long?

It’s almost unbelievable: Almost immediately after coming home, he gets ready to leave again! As Emily Wilson beautifully translates Odysseus giving the insane news to his long-suffering wife:

But now we have returned to our own bed,
As we both longed to do. You must look after
My property inside the house. Meanwhile,
I have to go on raids, to steal replacements
For all the sheep those swaggering suitors killed,
And get the other Greeks to give me more,
until I fill my folds.

Isn’t that the human condition in a nutshell? Isn’t that restlessness exactly what got Odysseus in trouble in the first place? The insatiability and greed that nearly took him and his men to the brink a hundred times? As Blaise Pascal put it, “all of humanity’s problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room.” Because we cannot be happy, because we can’t just be, we waste years of our life. We go begging for trouble."

Choosing the Correct Handle

SOURCE:  "How You Look at Things Matter," The Daily Stoic, January 29, 2020
KEYWORDS:  Perspective, Rose-Colored Glasses, Worldview

"As Epictetus said, each situation has two handles—one that will bear weight and one that won’t. We have to choose carefully and properly."

How we view the world matters.  Do we see it from a Christian perspective?  Do we seek God's will in each situation?  Do we find ways "to move forward, to reduce anxiety, to find humility, or to even see the humor."