A woman pushes a grocery cart slowly down the aisle.
She looks along the shelves as she walks.
Then she finds it.
She stops.
She reaches out and lifts the product from the shelf.
For a moment, she holds it.
Nothing else happens.
The product is no longer on the shelf, but it is not yet in the cart.
She looks at it.
Then she lowers her hand and places it in the cart.
She puts both hands back on the handle.
The cart moves forward.
She finds.
She holds.
She places.
The Stoic
Something appears.
The Stoic finds it.
Not finds as in inventing it, hunting for it, or deciding what it ought to be.
Simply:
There it is.
An impression.
A desire.
A fear.
An opportunity.
A pleasure.
A possibility.
The impression has arrived, but assent has not automatically followed it. The desire is real, but desire has not become an instruction. The possibility is attractive, but possibility has not become a plan.
Finding is recognition without command.
Then the Stoic holds it.
This is the interval.
Nothing has to be suppressed.
Nothing has to be obeyed.
And while it is held, there is room for judgment.
Does this belong here?
What does it ask of me?
Where does it fit?
Does it need action now?
Only then comes placement.
The Stoic gives the thing its place.
A fear may be placed among things outside one’s control.
A duty may be placed among things requiring action.
A desire may be placed on the horizon.
A pleasure may simply be allowed to remain pleasure.
An impression may be released without assent.
The important act happened in the middle.
The Stoic did not prevent the world from presenting something.
The Stoic did not immediately turn what appeared into action.
The Stoic made a space between finding and placing.
The grocery aisle gives us the whole philosophy in pantomime.
Find.
Hold.
Place.
WE&P by: EZorrillaMc&Co.
Travel in Life 