Introduction

“Waste No More Time Arguing What A Good Man Should Be. Be One.” – Marcus Aurelius

I am tempted to write something of an introduction, and at the same time, a part of me thinks it would be best to simply jump right in. I am not writing any of this with the thought that anyone outside of some close friends and family will read it, and it is likely they will already have a pretty good idea of why I am doing this. That said, in the extraordinarily unlikely event that someone less familiar with me reads this, I feel that it bears at least a cursory explanation.

I was deployed to Iraq in the summer of 2017. While there, there were long stretches of inactivity during which I occupied my mind and maintained my sanity by reading. I found a particular fondness for reading philosophy, specifically the works of the Stoics. I read the ancient Stoics like Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus, while also diving into some modern Stoics like Holiday and Pigliucci. Among other things (likely to be discussed in subsequent posts) one of the exercises practiced by both Modern and Ancient stoics alike was journaling. Meditations itself was Marcus Aurelius’ journal.

I chose to begin journaling, not simply in the “Dear Diary, this is what I did today…” sense, but with a constant eye to being a better Stoic and, ideally, better person. My Stoic Journaling, turning into the idea that at least some of my entries may, someday, help others. If not, I lose nothing, as I am still journaling. But if I can turn someone else on to Stoicism, or just philosophy in general, or if I can make someone laugh via my philosopher wanna-be raving, then I will be gratified in having done so.

That brings me to an important point. I may have a blog in which I am reflecting on events in my life and thought in my head from a philosophical perspective, but I am not, nor do I even remotely consider myself a philosopher or a stoic. At best, I am an aspiring Stoic with a blog and just enough narcissism to write on it, but I am the farthest thing from what the Stoics called a “Sage.”

My final item will be of an administrative quality. I am terrible at grammar. I have a penchant for capitalizing random words and inserting commas that are decidedly non-oxford. I beg the reader’s indulgence if (or more likely when) you catch any of these grammatical feux pas.