Dear Fellow Traveler,
Strangely, even after identifying a direction or rule of life, we often experience longings for other things. As previously mentioned (in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction), Seneca argued that we “adopt once and for all a single rule to live by and make our whole life conform to it.”
But it’s important to reiterate that adopting a rule of life is the beginning.
The rule gives birth to challenges, one of which is dealing with disordered longings. One of the most straightforward examples is our desire for control. We tend to long for the world to conform to us instead of the other way around.
The Stoics used the analogy of “longing for figs in winter” (typically available in late Summer) to make the point. In his Discourses, Epictetus explained,
What you love … has been given to you for the present, not that it should not be taken from you, nor has it been given to you for all time, but as a fig is given to you or a bunch of grapes at the appointed season of the year. But if you wish for these things in winter, you are a fool. So if you wish for your son or friend when it is not allowed to you, you must know that you are wishing for a fig in winter.
