If a person gave away your body to some passerby, you’d be furious. Yet you hand over your mind to anyone who comes along, so they may abuse you, leaving it disturbed and troubled–have you no shame in that?
-Epictetus, Enchiridion, 28
Six foot reactionary gap, remember? If you didn’t learn that in the academy and weren’t reminded of that gap and further from your training officers, you may want to ask yourself why someone was giving you the shortest end of the training stick!
We instinctively want to protect our physical bodies, but real freedom resides in the mind. The physical world around us is greatly out of our control but what we choose to think about, to dwell on that shapes our beliefs, will truly lead to a life of freedom. Are you protecting your mind from harm as viciously as you protect your body?
Assuming you want to live a virtuous life: one of wisdom, courage, justice and self-control, are you protecting your mind from the negative things that corrupt good virtue?
What are you handing your mind over to? Is it mindless social media scrolling? Is it work related texts when you’re sitting right next to your kids at the table while they wait to tell you all about their day? Is it all the anti-cop sentiment out there dripping into your mind like a poison?
Is your body free to come and go as you please while your mind is a completely undisciplined slave to something else? Identify your slave masters and choose to unchain yourself. Are you on shift letting the RP’s dictate your focus?
Someone may try to harm your body, sure, but the mind is yours and yours alone to control and out of that flows true freedom. Fix your mind and you’ll fix your life. Focus your mind on the virtuous things and you’ll find true freedom.
