When Will You Stop Fighting The Inevitable?

Paconius Agrippinus, a Roman Stoic philosopher, was preparing to take lunch, but a man interrupted him.

“The Senate is discussing your fate,” the man told him.

“Very well,” said Agrippinus. “But it’s the fifth hour now.” Agrippinus used to exercise and then take a cold bath at that hour.

After his exercise was over, someone came to him and said, “You have been condemned.”

“To death or exile?” asked Agrippinus.

“To exile,” the man said.

“What about my property?” wondered Agrippinus.

“It has not been confiscated,” responded the man.

“Well then, let us go to Aricia and take our lunch there.”

Agrippinus knew that he could not do anything to change Nero’s decision or disobey the law. Not only that, but a possible opposition could put his family in danger. So he accepted it and did his best with what was given to him.

The Stoics said one thing when facing an event outside your control: acceptance.

Acceptance is not the same as passivity; it’s the opposite.

Passivity is waiting for God or Luck to make things better for you—it’s the cowards’ route.

Acceptance is accepting what you can’t control and don’t like and fixating your mind on everything you can do to improve things.

If you start crying when you realize it’s raining, tell me: How will crying stop the rain from falling? Accept it, and start your day.

If you spill the orange juice on the kitchen table, tell me: How will blaming God put the orange juice back in the cartoon? Just clean up the mess and move on like nothing happened. Do you know why? Because nothing really happened.

Till next time,

Said The Stoic

PS. Are you struggling with ‘Acceptance’ over things you don’t control?