Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: It is too late to school the mind to endurance…
It is too late to school the mind to endurance of peril after peril has come. “I did not think this would happen,” and “Would you ever have believed that this would have happened?” say you. But why should it not?
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
The time to prepare for hardship is before the emergency. We insure the house, back up the files, build savings, learn basic skills, strengthen relationships, and practice emotional steadiness because crises do not send invitations. When trouble arrives, surprise makes pain worse. “I never thought this could happen” is often another way of saying we refused to let reality into our plans. This is not a call to live in dread. It is a call to include uncertainty in your picture of life. Flights get cancelled. Companies restructure. People disappoint us. Bodies fail. Knowing this does not make it happen; it makes us less helpless when it does. Today, prepare one thing you have been assuming will take care of itself. A little foresight is an act of care for your future self.
Related passages
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- Marcus Aurelius Living resembles wrestling more than dancing, for it demands readiness to meet and withstand sudden, unforeseen attacks.