Desiderata For Our Time Posted on January 30, 2016 by Seneca III Go with stout heart amid the noise and turmoil, and remember what peace there may be in victory. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with your own and forgive them their timidity for they do not understand what is upon them.
Give neither time nor succour to those loud and aggressive people who are inimical towards you; they are vexatious to the spirit and a threat to your person. If you compare yourself with them you waste your days in needless introspection. Enjoy your achievements and those of your forebears, and stay true to your past. Keep yourself interested in your freedom, however demanding; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your governance, for those who would presume to govern can often be full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtues there are amongst your own; many people strive for high ideals, and everywhere the lives of your brothers and sisters are full of quiet heroism. Speak truth unto tyrants and listen to others who do the same. Speak of this even to those of your gentle neighbours who stand confused amidst the tumult; they did not ask to be defenestrated and consumed in an inferno of treachery. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection for those who hold none for you. Neither be cynical about your love for your own; they who do not possess this gift are in all their aridity and disenchantment as sterile as the sands of their deserts. Take wisely the council of the years, gracefully surrendering the naivety of youth; it is not ordained that your bloodline be scoured from the pages of history nor that your lives and livelihoods be torn asunder on a rack of barbarism. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness, but if you are joined each with the other who stands beside you, fatigue will not bring fear as its handmaiden. With a wholesome discipline be firm with yourself and ruthless unto those who would destroy you. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; in absolute, you, and you alone, have the right to live safe in your ancestral lands all according to your ways. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is not unfolding as it should. Therefore be at ease with those actions you must now take in order to gift to your children a future free of chains, and give no mercy where none is due. Hence, whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, gather together, keep your wrath quietly within and your swords close to hand then let those instruments fall heavily upon the heads of those who seek to take from you your birthright and cast it amongst swine. Even with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, this world can be beautiful again. Be cheerful; be courageous. Strive hard and strike firmly; stride boldly into the encroaching darkness, for thus will you soon pass through it into light. — Seneca III, Middle England, 28th of January in this the year of our Lord 2016.
