WWSD (What Would Seneca Do?)

In the face of an overwhelming, infuriating, almost-paralyzing array of unanswerable philosophical questions, stoicism starts with the most pragmatic one.

What can we actually control? Our judgments, choices, intentions, virtues, efforts, and our focus. 

What can’t we control? Bad fortunes, when and where we are born, other people's opinions and actions, and even how long we live. 

The only thing we truly own is our time, and what we attempt to do with it.

In visualizing this artwork from our upcoming book, I wanted to show someone in a vast expanse, exposed to the elements, but calm, and a cowboy came to mind. The desert is the endless expanse of time, and he can explore some but not all of it. Cacti and shrubs demarcate the journey. The clock is ticking - one hand pointing to now, the other to the always-approaching end. And yet, he’s unperturbed. He owns and uses his time. He focuses on what he can control. He is content with the present.

Seneca implores us to use our time well. In fact, he says, it’s not even that life is short, “but that we waste much of it.” I think about that every time I’m scrolling Instagram reels kind-of-laughing-but-kind-of-bored. What could I be doing instead? The world is a big place and there’s so much to explore.

But the clock is ticking. WWSD?