You ever wonder what you’re supposed to be doing with your life?
And whether your current work meeting, consulting session, or conference presentation
has anything to do with that theoretical higher purpose?
…
And sometimes I get extremely depressed
And sometimes even enraged.
Other times I feel a tremendous rush of enthusiasm and elation.
…
And sometimes I try to be stoic

Life can have some baggage — it’s all in how ya stow it
Everything you have may get snatched away and stolen
The matter that youre made of will be scattered like a stone when
It gets broken into sand. Understand? Be a stoic

The Stoics were a sect among the Romans and Greeks
Who said yo, seek peace you emotional peeps
Everything’s a Whole and you’re only a piece
So don’t feel in a hole, or get overly pleased

For Stoics conceived the world had a Soul
Universal coeternal with its motion and whole
So you should make it your goal to come know what your role is
And roll with its will. And be chill. Be a stoic

It’s for fish to swim
It’s for clouds to rain
It’s for mountains to get ground down to grains
And it’s ours, with brains, when we’re crowned or pained,
To not wild out but be down with change

Be a stoic —even if you lose your purse
Be a stoic — if you lose your whole person at worst
Be a stoic — don’t be overjoyed or a jerk
Your employer is the universe, you’re always at work

So if ever you’re hurt by the products of chance
Just remember it’s the universes provident plans
It’s your part in the dance that the planet’s ensouled with
Don’t be like Damn! …Just be a stoic

Okay…I get what you’re saying
Don’t be emotional — stay in your lane and
Make the motions you’re supposed to — and roll through — but hold it:
But what if my emotions are my strength, O you Stoics?

Isn’t evolution powered by our pain and our bliss
Isn’t anguish at injustice and the angry raised fist
The only way we get our way, when haters make us insist?
Well now I’m getting pissed I’m not supposed to get pissed

These Stoics sound suspiciously like old white men
The Higher Mind we’re supposed to follow kinda sounds like…them?
Take your place in the line — a hierarchical pattern
When in Rome know your part whether slave or a master

Yeah word
It’s a cogent critique
And the slave role has rarely had
A moment to speak
But if we take it more deep:
Perhaps the role you must seek
Are the very goals and dreams
That make you wholly unique

You define your purpose
In the work of the universe
Your it’s person you decide on
What it’s pertinent
worth is first
And sure it’s a job
But a vocation as well
Cuz we’re all part of God
So we work for ourselves

And as far as I can tell
This is what the stoics can teach us
Zeno to Epictetus
Seneca to Aurelius
Tho we be mere dust
There’s meaning in being thus
Living for each other in peace
And receive what comes

Be a stoic — even when you’ve lost your stuff
Be a stoic — even when it’s not enough
Be a stoic — when it’s hot and the odds are tough
Be a stoic — do your job and your job is love

So if ever wonder what to do with your life
Or whether there is such a thing as doing what’s right
Know you’ll find it sight when the part that you go with
Is part of the whole. Play your role. Be a stoic