As another year begins, there is a collective thought that we are given an opportunity to start anew. We are presented with a turning point and are offered a chance – or a choice – to change. I reflect on the efforts I made as I was presented with this turning point a year ago, and I consider my lofty goals and expectations. It is easy to find failure there and see what little was accomplished, but that is no excuse to continue on a path of passivity. A task I undertook was meditation and reflection through the aid of Ryan Holiday’s “The Daily Stoic.” This was a path only ventured into for ten days. Though as I look through the journal I kept in response, I found that the first few entries have value for the year that lay ahead.

The first two entries in Holiday’s collection, January 1^st and 2^nd respectfully, comment on the ideas of choice and knowledge as presented by Epictetus. So, here we are again, faced with choices, as we are every day, and what follows are my responses to the musings of Epictetus repurposed…

Considering the idea of choice, I must be mindful of the decisions I make and the paths that stem directly from them. The choices I make should be sound so the path that follows is stable. While I can and should consider the choices of others, the path I carve out must be my own. To reference the words of Joseph Campbell, “You enter the forest at the darkest point. Where there is no path. Where there is a way or a path, it is someone else’s path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to realize your own potential.” I believe this bit of wisdom from Campbell to be a good starting point for myself as I venture forward. Every waking day is an opportunity to walk to the edge of a forest and to peer into the darkness that lives within, the wild unknown, and to try and tame it, to know it, to carve my own path.

To undertake this journey, it is important to consider what it means to venture into the unknown. Can one truly be at peace, live without fear, and be a free man simply at the gaining of knowledge? It is said that we only fear what we do not know, so it would stand to reason that the more you know the less you fear. It is also said that ignorance is bliss, and is bliss not a state of tranquility or peace? Where to know more is to think more and to think more can turn into a burden of the mind and of the soul. But to think, and to think for oneself is to BE, and is that not a truer mark of freedom? To know that there are things to fear, but to also know that fear can be overcome through wisdom – this is a liberating notion. In the face of fear, or the unknown, one is offered the previously commented on choices. To shy away from the dark corners of the world or to journey into the unknown. Seeking knowledge is a choice. A free mind ought not to sit idly by in ignorant bliss, it should seek out what it fears, and suss out the knowledge to shed light on the darkness and conquer the shadows within one’s own mind.

So, after reflecting on the ideas of choice and knowledge, I am faced with a feeling of unease, a sense of dread. What lies ahead is unknown, most certainly uncomfortable, but there is no virtue taking the road well-traveled. I choose to move toward the unfamiliar wild, to try and make my own way, and I hope it makes all the difference.