I am currently reading through the teaching of Epictetus. He was Greek mostly living in Rome. His main teaching period was perhaps from 85-120 CE. I am fascinated at how the problems with growth within individual human beings has little changed in thousands of years.
Society has no doubt improved. We don’t have the extreme cruelty, although we still retain too much. But humans, we still struggle to mature.
Reading Epictetus is as fresh as reading some of the current literature from the airport newsstand to occupy time on a flight.
He talks right away about rational mind and attitude. That made me think.
I rise in the morning from sleep. Arrange my nutritional supplements and medications for the day, drink my greens, pick up my book and notebook. Then, I fix a cup of coffee.
Many people say they need a cup of coffee to wake up. Do they really? Or is that attitude a result of a 50-year-old advertisement—“The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup”?
I know that it matters not whether I have the coffee or not as to how I’ll feel the rest of the morning. On the other hand, I really enjoy the taste of a well-roasted, direct trade coffee.
I have a bed filled with sensors connected to the “cloud”. I wake up and almost always feel awake and fine. But some days, the bed tells me I had a great night of sleep, perhaps 85 out of 100. Most days I’m at around 73. This morning, I awakened alert and ready to get up. The bed told me I had a terrible night—in the low 60s. Whom should I believe? Do I let the bed change my attitude toward this morning?
A person tells me they cannot do mathematics. I assure them that someone put that negative thought into their mind. They may never be a professional mathematician, but they could if properly trained be thoroughly proficient at a necessary level in algebraic and statistics and probability thinking—essential thinking skills for modern life.
Right Attitude.
Humans figured that out as the essential for a successful life 3,000 or even 4,000 years ago. Each of us must figure it out for ourselves anew every day.
Faith Venture 
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