"A good isn’t increased by the addition of time, but if one is wise for even a moment, they will be no less happy than the person who exercises virtue for all time and happily passes their life in it."
—Chrysippus Quoted By Plutarch In Moralia: “Against The Stoics On Common Conceptions,” 1062 (LOEB, P.682)
Perhaps wisdom and happiness are like winning a medal in the Olympics. It doesn’t matter whether you won a hundred years ago or ten minutes ago, or whether you won just once or in multiple events. It doesn’t matter whether someone beats your time or score down the road, and it doesn’t matter whether you never compete again. You’ll always be a medalist, and you’ll always know what it feels like. No one can take that away—and it would be impossible to feel more of that feeling.
The Juilliard-trained actor Even Handler, who not only survived acute myeloid leukemia but also severe depression, has talked about his decision to take antidepressants, which he did for a deliberately brief time. He took them because he wanted to know what true, normal happiness felt like. Once he did, he knew he would stop. He could go back to the struggle like everyone else. He had the ideal for a moment and that was enough.
Perhaps today will be the day when we experience happiness or wisdom. Don’t try to grab that moment and hold on to it with all your might. It’s not under your control how long it lasts. Enjoy it, recognize it, remember it. Having it for a moment is the same as having it forever.
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Holiday, Ryan, and Stephen Hanselman. 2016 The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living. New York: Penguin.
