Identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control.

From Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

While I do not feel like we are on the brink of a French Revolution Reign of Terror, much of the recitation above feels very proximate.  We have hysterics, proclamations, apocalyptic forecasts.  We have mass foolishness.  We are told to anticipate a winter of despair, a despotic new normal.  But all this issues from the media.

Day-to-day people are friendly and soldiering through, dismayed by their political leaders but confident in their own long term prospects.  We have suffered a self-inflicted economic setback but we have increasing confidence that this is ultimately just a blip.  The numbers bear all this out.  We are living longer, better, healthier.  

But that is not reflected in the papers or what is seen on the TV news.  

Seems like what is needed is a strong dose of old time stoicism as an antidote to the emotional handwringing of talking heads with the reportorial accuracy of Joe Isuzu.

Let's get some of the wisdom Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus back into circulation.  And not the tightlipped silent sufferers of misery so often represented, but those wise men who knew there is everything to rejoice and yet we cannot become slaves to expectations.  

From The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.  Starting with:

The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own . . .

 —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.5.4–5