This Little Light of Yours

“Protect your own good in all that you do, and as concerns everything else take what is given as far as you can make reasoned use of it. If you don’t, you’ll be unlucky, prone to failure, hindered and stymied.”

EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.3.11

The quote above for today’s entry comes from Epictetus, and he reminds that we need to protect our own flame, protect our own spirit.

Author Ryan Holiday goes further, and explains that we are responsible only for our own flame. Everything else is outside our control. So protect your own flame and keep it supplied with fuel.

Keep yourself focused on what’s important, and make sure you are feeding your inner flame with healthy inputs, rich wisdom, and bold truths.

Fourth of July

Today is Independence Day in the United States, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the author chose the title “Protect the Flame” for this day’s entry in his book.

On a day like today, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with emotion and feel that love of country is just as important as love of neighbor and love for yourself. That we should protect our country above all else.

To be clear — a little patriotism never hurt anyone! It’s not wrong to feel proud of your country.

But patriotism is not nearly as important as loving yourself, and loving the people around you, and the pursuit of wisdom and all that is good and true in this world. Those things should always come first, before allegiance to an abstract. Patriotism is not an evil, but it’s not part of stoicism either, and there’s good reason for that.

Be proud of your country, yes — but prouder still of the hard work that you put in to improve yourself and always seek the truth, and always strive to do what is good and right.

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