THINKER'S ALMANAC - October 23

How is the challenge of writing a poem a good metaphor for life?

Subject:  Stoicism - Cleanthes of Assos

Event:  “Letter of Recommendation: Nail-Biting” published in The New York Times Magazine, 2018

To Cleanthes, labor and philosophy were not rivals.  They were two sides of the same coin, pursuits that furthered and enabled each other. -Ryan Holiday

On this day in 2018, The New York Times Magazine published an article by the author Suzannah Showler on the topic of nail-biting.  The article was just one of an ongoing feature called Letter of Recommendation, where different writers share their passion for a specific object or experience; the feature’s stated purpose is “Celebrating the overlooked and the underappreciated.”

Showler begins with a reference to the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes of Assos  (c. 330-230 B.C.) who she claims was “history’s first nail-biter of note.”  More than just a nail-biter, Cleanthes is known as a philosopher who honored manual labor just as much as intellectual labor.  A boxer in his youth, Cleanthes worked the night shift in Athens as a water-carrier, which earned him the nickname “water-boy.” 

                                                                     Image by Pete from Pixabay 

Cleanthes spent nineteen years as a disciple of Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy.  When Zeno died in 262 BC, Cleanthes succeeded his mentor as the head of the school, serving in the role for 32 years.  Although he wrote nearly fifty books as well as works of poetry, most of his writings are lost to history.  It was in poetry that Cleanthes saw an excellent metaphor for life.  Despite the constraining rules of verse, a poet might still move an audience.  The challenge of poetry parallels a central teaching of Stoicism:  that obstacles and failures do not necessarily mean disaster.  Instead, when responded to with the right mindset and attitude, these obstacles can be synthesized and transformed into opportunities.  It is not unfortunate events that control our fate; instead, it is our response to those events that determine whether we live a fulfilled life.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How is poetry an apt metaphor for Stoic philosophy?

Challenge -Letter of Recommendation:  What is a specific object or experience (not a person) that you would recommend?  How specifically has this object or experience made you or your life better?  For the best results, go beyond the obvious by selecting a topic that might be overlooked or underappreciated by your audience and by including details from research that teach the audience something new.  The purpose of your speech is to help the audience gain a new appreciation or insight regarding your object or experience by showing them why it means so much to you and how, in turn, it might be valuable for them too.  

Example Topics for a Letter of Recommendation:

Objects:  Hot-water Bottles, Clams, Podcasts, Squirrels, Aesop’s Fables, Presidential Biographies, A Kitchen Timer, Spider Webs

Experiences:  Ping Pong, Juggling, Looking Out the Window, William Blake’s Grave, Skiing

Sources:

1-Suzannah Showler. “Letter of Recommendation:  Nail-Biting.” The New York Times Magazine 23 Oct. 2018.

2. Holiday, Ryan and Stephen Hanselman.  Lives of the Stoics:  The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius.  New York:  Portfolio/Penguin, 2020.