Stoicism And James Bond. "
In the center of Bond was a hurricane-room, the kind of citadel found in old-fashioned houses in the tropics. These rooms are small, strongly built cells in the heart of the house, in the middle of the ground floor and sometimes dug down into its foundations. To this cell the owner and his family retire if the storm threatens to destroy the house, and they stay there until the danger is past. Bond went to his hurricane-room only when the situation was beyond his control and no other possible action could be taken. Now he retired to this citadel, closed his mind to the hell of noise and violent movement, and focused on a single stitch in the back of the seat in front of him, waiting with slackened nerves for whatever fate had decided for B.E.A. Flight No. 130."
In Florida, we get a lot of hurricanes. Ian came through yesterday with a vengeance, and there are millions of Floridians dealing with the aftermath, and millions more who are facing it today and tomorrow. We in St. Petersburg had a lot of power loss; but, the brunt of the storm passed south of us, and we are fortunate. The whole experience has reinforced my Stoic beliefs, and my previous experience with Irma 5 years ago this month. Fate will do as it wills, and there is nothing any human can do about it. Flailing around trying to control outcomes is futile. We do what we can, and then we accept fate's results. Too often, when fate deals a blow, some of us spend days, months, or even years, allowing the memory to affect our lives. The key to Stoic reaction is resilience. We never give up. We never surrender. We find goodness and joy in every human experience, no matter how dire the experience looks or feels. Your spouse dies? Get up on your feet, and allow life to bring you another. Every time I say that, I get "But, how can you experience joy with another?" "How disrespectful", etc. In fact, it would be wrong to waste a life over something in the past and out of our control. Your house floats away in a hurricane? Sorry, but, if you are alive, you dig in, fight for insurance, and build another. Epictetus was in slavery his whole life. He lost a leg. Still, he persevered and became one of the wisest philosophers of his age, or any age.
Back to James Bond. While his exploits seem unreal and impossible, the point is always his resilience. Nothing fazes him. He perseveres. He keeps his hurricane room, which is a metaphorical center of his reality that he goes to to await the next judgment of fate after he has done all he can in a given situation. Be like Bond. James Bond.
