On Gathering Stones

It’s not what you did, it’s who you are. That’s why I find the virtues so suggestive. The classical virtues, prudence (reasonableness), fortitude, justice, temperance (moderation), form a practice, or what’s called a way. Prudence is a right relationship to reality. It tells you when courage is courage, not recklessness. Fortitude, more than courage, has endurance and longevity, like a mongoose confronting a snake. Justice returns to everything that which belongs to it (consider the depth of that), and temperance literally tempers behaviour, particularly greed. Each of these words has further meanings, evoking volumes of interpretation over the ages.

Who you are determines what you are. You can be the right person in the right place at the right time, or the wrong person in similar circumstances. You can be praised for wrong behaviour or condemned for right behaviour. There’s nothing objective here. Who you are is what you are. Observe that the mongoose, by nature’s grace, is free of snake toxins. By contrast, vices are actually boring: arrogance, envy, greed. Who wants to live there? The cardinal virtues are a kind of medicine, a way out. Activate your inner Mongoose. A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together.