Each morning for the past few weeks I have been reading a daily meditation from “The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday (who has also authored “Ego is the Enemy” and “The Obstacle is the Way” which are fantastic reads in and of themselves.) This morning’s piece resonated deeply with me.
“The human being is born with an inclination toward virtue.”- Musonis Rufus, Lectures 2.7.1-2
The notion of original sin has weighed down humankind for centuries. In reality, we’re made to help each other and be good to each other. We wouldn’t have survived as a species otherwise… You were born good. “All of us have been made by nature,” Rufus said, “so that we can live free from error and nobly- not that one can and another can’t, but all.” You were born with an attraction to virtue and self-mastery. If you’ve gotten far from that, it’s not out of some inborn corruption but from a nurturing of the wrong things and the wrong ideas.As an educator, do you still believe in the virtues of our profession? How often do you focus on the wrong things and nurture the wrong mindsets and attitudes? How often do you remain fixated on the wrong things and the wrong idea? Do you continue to seek self-mastery through continued growth and learning? Teaching is hard. But you were born good. And you were born to make a difference.
