Not The Right Time

As this is a handbook,  we have the choice to decide if we use his advice or not, but relating it to the Advice to Youth text we read today I certainly want to omit Epictetus. 

It's quite interesting how we are asked to read something that in a way is so meaningless. How can you expect children our age be able to , " do not laugh a great deal or at a great many things or unrestrainedly"(33), when what interests us most is to try to find happiness. It is as if Epictetus was taking the natural instinct of youth. I know this was not precisely written for youth but after all we are the ones reading it. 

When Epictetus wrote: "Speak rarely, when the occasion requires speaking, but not just about any topic that come up but, not about gladiators, horse races,athletes, eating or drinking-the things that always come up; and especially if it is about people, talk without blaming, or praising, or comparing"(33), he is write about the moral of the situation, but come on, lets be realistic. How can he ask someone at this point in time to not compare or blame? It is totally impossible because of the superficial world teenagers live in. I tell you a at this point of age no one can survive without talking, unless you want to become a social reject. And not just talking but talking about, "gladiators,horse races, athletes, eating or drinking"(33), which of course it is not precisely that but more or less things like: facebook, msn,gossip, and all those things that make it funner for a teenager but make the world fail in success.

It may be adequate to teach all this stuff but not right now, youth does not even mind.