Stoic

Am blessed to have an older friend tutoring me in philosophy.  Mega win-win!  She loves philosophy & I never gave it a try in college, let alone later in life, firmly convinced in my earlier years that I was too dense, too much a dullard to be able to comprehend it.  (Oh, the stupid stories we tell ourselves!)

From today's intro "class", am thinking that Mim is a classic Stoic.  Throughout my years with her, a recurring message I got was that pain is innately noble; that if doing a good thing gives you a sense of pleasure, it's value is seriously diminished - to have true value, an action must include some aspect of pain, serious discomfort or at least significant inconvenience.  

It was only this past Saturday - completely independent of today's AH HA! realization after learning about the Stoics - that it hit me WHY Mim was able to tackle & complete her undergrad degree at NYU, when all early attempts were short lived.  Have always said that she wasn't able to finish until she found a program funky enough to catch & keep her attention.  A casual comment by someone standing next to me at the Marriott Marquis, talking about something totally unrelated, lit a giant beaming light bulb over my head.  What set the NYU program apart from all the others was its high degree of inconvenience, difficult logistics & time burden.  It involved some aspect of pain.  

Then came today & there was Beth talking about the Stoics.  And all I could see was Mim.

It seems that Stoics believe people must be virtuous solely for the sake of duty, that experiencing pleasure as the result of doing something worthy compromises & negates its virtue.  Mim to a T.  How many times did she tell me that what I did for others, for the family, had zip nada zilch value because the doing made me happy?  That all the favors I did for her were hopelessly compromised by the fact they had no value since doing them - whatever that might be - made me happy.  

Can still remember my reaction when she first clearly enunciated that to me - looked her square in the eyes & declared, "Well, then I'm doomed to a lifetime of doing worthless things, because I'll always take pleasure in lending a hand to others, even when it's not convenient."  Brazen bluster on my part, since her statement thoroughly threw me.  

Okay, can see that Mim definitely seems to be a Stoic.  Leaves me wondering - what am I?