The full quote from By Molly Young's article, "Better Living Through Stoicism, From Seneca to Modern Interpreters" (www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/books/stoicism-books.html) :
Got a God intolerance? Try Epictetus!
The article was primarily concerned Mangling her sentences, Young wrote that for a meaningful secular existence, Stoicism might be "swapped in for religion like Lactaid for regular milk. (Got a God intolerance? Try Epictetus!)"
Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. (*I had to look it up.) It seems that the Stoics had their own version of Winston Churchill's “Never let a good crisis go to waste”.
One of the premises of Stoicism is that it will help you assimilate horrible events with equanimity. The proper way to respond to catastrophe, the Stoics will tell you, is to perceive it as a training exercise. Or, as Seneca put it: “Disaster is virtue’s opportunity.”
It brings to mind a Garrison Keillor script where the narrator describes not being bothered by his wife ran off to Paris with some guy and his daughter dropped out of medical school to pursue a career in dry cleaning. No, because by being a writer, it's all material.
A good deal of my philosophy derives from bumper stickers, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. Sherry Ross, an old acquaintance had a mug with the slogan, "Grin and ignore it." Sometimes I act that way. I know it infuriated a much despised former boss that I relayed bad news with a grin.
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