Enchiridion 14: Work What Is In Your Power

"If you wish your children and your wife and your friends to live forever, you are foolish for you wish things to be in your power which are not so; and what belongs to others to be your own. So likewise, if you wish your servant to be without fault, you are foolish for you wish vice not to be vice, but something else. But if you wish not to be disappointed in your desires, that is in your own power. Exercise therefore, what is in your power. A man's master is he who is able to confer or remove whatever that man seeks or shuns. Whoever then would be free, let him wish nothing, let him decline nothing, which depends on others; else he must necessarily be a slave." (Epictetus, Enchiridion 14)

I gotta Fortune Cookie written by a Chinese Stoic the other day. How fortunate! It's a goofy pic, so don't read into it too much.

My Fortune Cookie (a little Stoic humor tucked away in there) reminds us that that we only control what is in our power, so we are able to explore today's thought: dwelling on that which is beyond our control as if it were under our control is foolishness and this kind of thinking leads to to disappointment.

As a verb, "wish" is to, "feel or express a strong desire or hope for something that is not easily attainable; want something that cannot or probably will not happen."

So if you wish (in effect, "pray") for something that is beyond your control, outside your power, "you are foolish." If wise King Solomon were speaking, he would say the act was futile, vain, empty. Void. 

What you have within your control is the ability to not be disappointed; that is, work what is in your power. Master your desires. 

Did you notice Epictetus' intriguing note about one who is κύριος (lord, master)? The master is one who gives and takes, so the one who is free wishes for nothing he can't give himself. He is no slave to his desires. He is as happy has he sets his mind to be.