I

February    6th

DON’T   SEEK    OUT STRIFE

“I  don’t   agree   with    those   who plunge  headlong    into    the middle  of  the flood   and who,    accepting   a

turbulent   life,   struggle    daily   in  great   spirit  with    difficult   circumstances.  The wise    person  will

endure  that,   but won’t   choose  it—choosing to  be  at  peace,  rather  than    at  war.”

—SENECA,    MORAL   LETTERS,    28.7

t has become a cliché to quote Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech, which lionizes “the
one whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly . . .” compared with the
critic who sits on the sidelines. Roosevelt gave that speech shortly after he left office, at the height of his
popularity. In a few years, he would run against his former protégé in an attempt to retake the White
House, losing badly and nearly assassinated in the process. He would also nearly die exploring a river in
the Amazon, kill thousands of animals in African safaris, and then beg Woodrow Wilson to allow him to
enlist in World War I despite being 59 years old. He would do a lot of things that seem somewhat baffling
in retrospect.
Theodore Roosevelt was a truly great man. But he was also driven by a compulsion, a work and
activity addiction that was seemingly without end. Many of us share this affliction—being driven by
something we can’t control. We’re afraid of being still, so we seek out strife and action as a distraction.
We choose to be at war—in some cases, literally—when peace is in fact the more honorable and fitting
choice.
Yes, the man in the arena is admirable. As is the soldier and the politician and the businesswoman and
all the other occupations. But, and this is a big but, only if we’re in the arena for the right reasons.