Eating Stoically on Day Four

A great deal of Stoicism seems to be about consciously avoiding things that you might enjoy. With this in mind, it can be helpful to think of ways to make such things seem less appealing:

"When meat and other dainties are before you, you reflect: This is dead fish, or fowl, or pig; or: This Falernian is some of the juice from a bunch of grapes; my purple robe is sheep's wool stained with a little gore from a shellfish; copulation is friction of the members and an ejaculatory discharge. Reflections of this kind go to the bottom of things, penetrating into them and exposing their real nature." (Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, Book VI, 13, emphasis added)

Now, I'm talking about Stoics and food but I also can't help but think that either the translator was having fun here or dear Marcus was busy with self talk when he wrote this passage: "Think unsexy thoughts. Think unsexy thoughts..."

This morning I had a smoothie for breakfast. The inherent appeal of this was effectively diminished by its greenness, viscosity and tartness. The greenness was pureed silverbeet. It was a stoic smoothie.A small bowl of chickpeas made a morning snack and plain chicken with quinoa and olives was lunch.While I did go out for dinner it was to a cheap and grimy Chinese restaurant with notoriously indifferent service. I didn't mind. I'm focused on the higher goal of some sort of inner mastery.

While I haven't eschewed meat and flavour entirely, I have drunk only water and eaten mainly with nutrition and energy in mind. The important concept seems to be the value you place on the triviality of sensation, taste in this case. I'm not sure what there is to eat tomorrow but I will attend to it frugally. For now I must focus on what's most important: the present and the virtuous opportunities it affords.

Geoff