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August  2nd

WE  CAN WORK    ANY WAY

“Indeed,    how could   exile   be  an  obstacle    to  a   person’s    own cultivation,    or  to  attaining   virtue  when

no  one has ever    been    cut off from    learning    or  practicing  what    is  needed  by  exile?”

—MUSONIUS   RUFUS,  LECTURES,   9.37.30–31, 9.39.1

ate in his life, after a surgery, Theodore Roosevelt was told he might be confined to a wheelchair for
the remainder of his days. With his trademark ebullience, he responded, “All right! I can work that
way too!”
This is how we can respond to even the most disabling turns of fate—by working within whatever
room is left. Nothing can prevent us from learning. In fact, difficult situations are often opportunities for
their own kinds of learning, even if they’re not the kinds of learning we’d have preferred.
Musonius Rufus, for his part, was exiled three times (twice by Nero and once by Vespasian), but being
forcibly expelled from his life and his home didn’t impinge on his study of philosophy. In his way, he
responded by saying “All right! I can work that way too.” And he did, managing to squeeze in some time
between exiles with a student named Epictetus and thus helping to bring Stoicism to the world.