P

March 20th

READY AND AT HOME

“I may wish to be free from torture, but if the time comes for me to

endure it, I’ll wish to bear it courageously with bravery and honor.

Wouldn’t I prefer not to fall into war? But if war does befall me,

I’ll wish to carry nobly the wounds, starvation, and other

necessities of war. Neither am I so crazy as to desire illness, but if

I must suffer illness, I’ll wish to do nothing rash or dishonorable.

The point is not to wish for these adversities, but for the virtue that

makes adversities bearable.”

—SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 67.4

resident James Garfield was a great man—raised in humble
circumstances, self-educated, and eventually a Civil War hero—whose
presidency was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. In his brief time in office,
he faced a bitterly divided country as well as a bitterly and internally
divided Republican Party. During one fight, which challenged the very
authority of his office, he stood firm, telling an adviser: “Of course I
deprecate war, but if it is brought to my door the bringer will find me at
home.”
That’s what Seneca is saying here. We’d be crazy to want to face
difficulty in life. But we’d be equally crazy to pretend that it isn’t going to
happen. Which is why when it knocks on our door—as it very well may this
morning—let’s make sure we’re prepared to answer. Not the way we are
when a surprise visitor comes late at night, but the way we are when we’re
waiting for an important guest: dressed, in the right head space, ready to go.