II. How We Throw It Away

Seneca shifts from the complaint to the cause.

Why do we complain of nature? She has been kind to us. The problem is how we use what she gave.

Look around you. One person is eaten up by greed that nothing satisfies. He gets what he wanted and immediately wants more. Another kills himself with work that leads nowhere. One is drowning in wine. Another is paralyzed by sloth and laziness. One person is so desperate for the approval of others that he gives every hour of his life to chasing it. A merchant crosses every sea, goes to every land, driven by the hope of more money. A soldier spends his life either threatening other men's lives or trembling for his own. Some grind themselves down in service to powerful people, spending years doing whatever is asked, hoping for favor that might never come. Many pass their time complaining about what other people have, or mourning what they themselves have lost.

Some have no fixed purpose at all. They are tossed from one new idea to another by a restless, dissatisfied, fickle mind that cannot commit to anything and never finishes what it starts. Some are so passive that they simply drift until fate catches up with them.

Look at all of them. Their vices press in from every side and never let them stand upright. They never lift their eyes to see what is actually true. They are kept face-down, chained to what is low.

Now look at the prosperous ones. The people everyone envies. Look at them closely. They are choked by their own good fortune. So many people demanding their attention, so many followers and favor-seekers pulling them in different directions, so many people claiming pieces of their day. Look through all of them, from the lowest to the highest. Every single person is busy on someone else's behalf. No one belongs to himself.

There is a man so surrounded by people asking for his time that he grumbles privately about never being able to live his own life. Notice what he is saying. He complains that others will not give him access, while he himself gives access to everyone. He has never learned to say no to anyone except himself.