I was really expecting this to be about sex.
Instead I’ve fallen down a cerebral rabbit hole of stoicism, and it’s perspective on desire.
“Don’t dream about things you don’t have. Instead, think about the best things you now have and how much you would crave them if you didn’t have them. At the same time, don’t value them so much that you will be upset if you lose them.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
The suggestion is that the key to living a satisfying, fulfilling life is to divest one’s self of desire and those things which tend to make one miserable because one is constantly living in a state of looking forward to what might be coming, what is hopefully coming, rather than joyously existing in the present moment and being gratified by what is already here.
I don’t do well at restraining my desire. If I want it, I get it. And then I have it, but is it enough? Or does that just create more want because now I’ve given myself permission to give in to that craving, that hunger?
It would have been so much easier to make this about sex.
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