I

February 27th

CULTIVATING INDIFFERENCE WHERE OTHERS GROW

PASSION

“Of all the things that are, some are good, others bad, and yet others

indifferent. The good are virtues and all that share in them; the bad

are the vices and all that indulge them; the indifferent lie in

between virtue and vice and include wealth, health, life, death,

pleasure, and pain.”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.19.12b–13

magine the power you’d have in your life and relationships if all the
things that trouble everyone else—how thin they are, how much money
they have, how long they have left to live, how they will die—didn’t matter
so much. What if, where others were upset, envious, excited, possessive, or
greedy, you were objective, calm, and clearheaded? Can you envision that?
Imagine what it would do for your relationships at work, or for your love
life, or your friendships.
Seneca was an incredibly wealthy, even famous, man—yet he was a
Stoic. He had many material things, yet, as the Stoics say, he was also
indifferent to them. He enjoyed them while they were there, but he accepted
that they might someday disappear. What a better attitude than desperately
craving more or fearfully dreading losing even one penny. Indifference is
solid middle ground.
It’s not about avoidance or shunning, but rather not giving any possible
outcome more power or preference than is appropriate. This not easy to do,
certainly, but if you could manage, how much more relaxed would you be?