Rudyard Kipling Was A Stoic.

The famous 19th century poem, "If", by Kipling, is powerful. Since we are heading into football season, this reading by John Facenda, of NFL Films is a great version, and carries one of my favorite lines: "If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same". One of the bedrock Stoic principles is to expect disaster, and treat it the same as success. Never expect success to continue, and prepare for the worst. Concentrate on being your best no matter what happens. It is the choices we make in the present that count. It is our reaction to these varied events that we control, and nothing else. In its imitation of reality, football embodies conflict and resolution, success and failure, and what a famous broadcaster used to call "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat". But, the key is to control our reaction to these twin results, and not to wallow in defeat, or become sanguine about victory. If you can control these impulses, "you'll be a man, my son".