15. Life Is a Banquet

Epictetus compares life to a banquet. Take your share. Do not grab. Do not beg.

Remember that you should behave in life as you would at a banquet.

Is a dish brought round to you? Put out your hand and take a fair share.

Does it pass you by? Do not stop it.

Has it not yet come? Do not stretch your desire out toward it. Wait until it reaches you.

Do the same with children, with a wife, with public position, with wealth. In time you will be a worthy partner at the feasts of the gods.

If you do not so much as reach for the things set before you, but are able even to look past them, then you will not only be a partner at the feasts of the gods, but share in their rule as well. This is how Diogenes and Heraclitus and others like them rightly came to be called divine.

What this means. At any table, take what is handed to you and be glad. Do not grab. Do not sulk when nothing comes. That is how a whole life is eaten well.