July 4
What we seek is this: that the soul should always move at an even pace, in good order, content with itself, loving its own condition and not interrupting this joy — a quiet evenness. The Greeks call it Euthymia. I call it tranquillity.
On the Tranquillity of Mind, 2
Listening mode
What we seek is this: that the soul should always move at an even pace, in good order, content with itself, loving its own condition and not interrupting this joy — a quiet evenness. The Greeks call it Euthymia. I call it tranquillity.
On an irritable day there are often two annoyances. The first is aimed at whatever is bothering you: an email, the noise in the stairwell, a sentence that landed wrong. The second is aimed at yourself, for letting it bother you. You wanted to be more composed, and here you are, annoyed again.
The second is harder to notice, because it feels like having standards. It seems to prove that you care about yourself. If you gave it up, you fear, you might grow slack and resign yourself to every mood.
Yet it rarely makes the first one smaller. Mostly it prolongs it. A bad morning turns into a verdict on you, and that verdict lasts longer than any cause.
Perhaps evenness is less a good mood than a refusal to turn on yourself: to be irritable and still stay on your own side. Whether that is already forbearance or already complacency is hard to check from the inside.
Afterwards the annoyance about the email is still there. Only now it stands alone.
