Massimo Pigliucci

Where can you make a difference?

And just as importantly, he kept repeating to himself that

In those areas where you couldn't do anything, it was okay.

You had to accept that.

This was not something that you want to lose your sleep over because, A, it doesn't help, and, B, if you lose your sleep over it, then you're actually going to be less efficacious in the kind of things you actually can do.

It has.

I am far less bothered by the issue these days.

I focus on what is under my control.

So when I go out for dinner, I try to stay away from things that I know are not good for me.

Minimize the damage, as my wife and I call it.

And then when I'm home, we have more control, of course, over what we eat.

As I said, I go and exercise on a regular basis, and I go to the doctor, and that's it.

But, you know, during the pandemic, for instance, I was reminded one more time that Epictetus and Marcus are right.

Because one day I suddenly collapsed the floor and was brought to the emergency room.

I had absolutely no control over my body.

Nothing.

Turns out to be a rather minor thing.

It was a slipped disc.

And I recovered very quickly and, you know, thanked Zeus for painkillers and stuff like that.

But that was an instant reminder that, you know, although now it's been years that you exercise, you eat healthy and all that sort of stuff.