Psychological Freedom: Epictetus Says… (Heroic +1 #1835)

Hi, this is Bryan. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last couple ones, we spent some time briefly chatting about Harriet Tubman and her heroic commitment to something bigger than herself. As General McChrystal highlighted in his book on leadership, check out the notes on leaders, Myth and reality. After escaping slavery, Harriet risked her freedom by going back over the Mason Dixon line to free her family and friends 13 times. Got goosebumps typing it out and saying that out loud. If you feel so inspired, think about that and feel into that for a moment longer. Note. At the risk of stating the obvious, but to make the implicit explicit, as a privileged white man living in the bubble wrap of my 21st century existence, it's literally impossible for me to even imagine growing up and experiencing the ineffable abuse and indignities that of slavery. It's also impossible for me to imagine the courage it would take to escape, let alone to imagine the incredible love Harriet felt for her family and community to risk her freedom in life over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Yes, that's 13 times to save her family. At the risk of stating the obvious, but to make the implicit explicit, there's only one reason she would do that. Love. I repeat, freedom did not mean happiness if it meant her family was still in bondage. It's with that in mind that I think of one of my favorite heroes, Epictetus. Quick context. AA Long is one of the most respected scholars on Stoicism. He's been a beloved professor at the University of California, Berkeley for four decades and wrote a book on Epictetus and his wisdom called how to Be Free. In that book he tells us, and I quote him, this book presents an ancient Greek philosopher's take on freedom. Freedom construed as living in agreement with nature, owning and ruling oneself, becoming a world citizen, desiring always and only what you are assured of getting, and much more. He continues by saying, Epictetus, who lived from A.D. 55 to 135, our author and guide to the Stoic life, was born a slave. His Greek name means acquired and entered service as a slave in the household of a power broker in Nero's Rome and himself a freedman. By the time Epictetus publicly delivered his thoughts on freedom, he had enjoyed many years of manumission. But the experience of slavery left its mark on his philosophy through and through. And Long tells us, and I quote one more, the first lesson of the Enchiridion. His Handbook Guide to Stoicism insists that everything that is truly our own doing is naturally free, unimpeded, and unconstrained. Freedom, according to this notion, is neither legal status nor opportunity to move around at liberty. It is the mental orientation of persons who are impervious to frustration or disappointment because their wants and decisions depend on themselves and involve nothing that they cannot deliver to themselves. Note One of the reasons I deeply admire Epictetus and feel such a kinship to him is the fact that although I wasn't born into slavery in the literal physical sense, obviously I was born into a lower middle class family in which psychological slavery was dominant. My father's alcoholism and his father's alcoholism and suicide has deeply shaped my life. Breaking the bonds of that psychological slavery has been a big part of my life and is a big part of my life's mission to help create a world in which 51% of humanity is flourishing by the year 2051. So today's plus one. I ask you again, who are your two favorite heroes? Why? What qualities do they embody? And most importantly, how can you embody those qualities and forge the strength for something bigger than yourself? Today, I repeat, freedom isn't free. We have countless anonymous human beings to thank for our physical and political freedoms. And we have countless human beings to thank for your psychological freedoms. Here's to doing the hard work to maintain our own psychological freedom to flourish, while doing everything we can to help those less fortunate than us experience those same psychological freedoms as well. It's day one. We are all in. Let's create that world in which 51% of humanity is flourishing by the year 2051. Starting with you and me and all of us together today.