Every once in a while, I think about how MC and Rime’s dynamic is the funniest and saddest thing ever.

Because…MC stole his life. Then his weapon. Then his job. Then his boyfriend. And then, depending how you play it, MC also steals his heart.

i have no idea how to fit in rosamunde’s backstory into aab, so i just wrote it out lol

The most valuable lesson that her late father ever taught her was to survive.

Survival, he told her, meant being able to blend in wherever and with whomever. Survival meant discarding dignity and honour, and other such lofty notions that had long been ingrained in her. To survive was to simply be alive, to thrive was to be living. Living could come later, but only if one was alive.

Rosamunde had been but seven years old when he told her this, and she couldn’t help but blurt out, “Why aren’t you telling this to Gisbert and Ernst?”

Her father smiled gently, if not a bit forlornly, smoothing her hair without a word. Then he replied, “Because my dear Roeschen is a girl.”

She frowned. “So?”

“People can be cruel and unfair. You won’t have the same opportunities as your brothers should anything happen. They can take up a sword and fight to survive, but you won’t be able to do the same.”

“But why not?”

“That’s a lesson for another day, but you already see it, don’t you? When you study with the Royal Tutor, are there any other girls around? Don’t people give you strange looks when you accompany the princes?”

It was true… People raised a brow at her whenever she studied at the castle. Sometimes there would be unkind snickers, pointed fingers, but she always ignored them. Her grandfather once said that only fools mock an educated woman.

Her father pulled out a silver bangle from his jacket and slipped it onto her wrist. It was old and deceptively simple. The engravings felt like letters, but she couldn’t quite decipher what they meant.

“What is this?”

He kissed her temple. “It’s a lucky charm.”

When she was ten, her family was exiled, stripped of all their glory and wealth, and sent to the bitter northern border. It was a bit hard to leave behind her friends, Prince Volker had hugged her desperately, begging her to stay because he would marry her, but she didn’t let it show. Weakness was a necessity for it kept one from becoming too arrogant, but it was also necessary to keep it hidden from all but one’s most trusted. That was what her father taught his soldiers, and ultimately, he passed it on to his children.

Life was difficult at first – she had grown up surrounded by servants, but neither her mother nor father complained about it, so she decided there was no point in it either. They were alive, they were surviving, and for Rosamunde, that was enough.

Her father was restricted in what he was allowed to do, where he was allowed to go, so he made and sold wood carvings. Her mother was a homemaker and sold her embroidery. Her older brothers did odd jobs around the small village, and Rosamunde helped her mother at home. She didn’t know how, but they scraped by. Their home wasn’t large, but it was clean and functional. They didn’t have a proper farm to earn money with, but they had some animals, and a somewhat fertile garden to work with. It wasn’t the life of glittering wealth they had before, but it was a life she could live with for the rest of her life.

She was twelve when her father taught her his last lesson.

“Roeschen, do you think revenge is a good or bad thing?”

She stopped sewing and tried to gauge her father’s expression. It was dark, save for the flickering light of the hearth. “It’s…revenge comes from hatred, so isn’t it inherently a bad thing?”

“It is indeed.” He was quiet for a moment. “Is justice a good or bad thing?”

“It’s a good thing.”

“Then if a man seeks retribution for his brother’s murder, is it justice or revenge?”

“It’s justice.”

“Is it justice if he takes matters into his own hands and kills the murderer himself? Is it justice if he makes it his mission to make the murderer’s life as miserable as possible without killing him?”

She didn’t know how to answer. Her father laughed quietly as he reached over and patted her head. “It’s all right if you don’t have an answer, Roeschen. You’ll find your own as you grow older.”

The next day, soldiers came with a warrant for her father. Her father didn’t seem surprised, and even laughed jovially at the sight of them. Her mother remained stoic, but Rosamunde could see her trembling as they took Gisbert and Ernst.

A few days passed, and no word came from the capital. Realistically, Rosamunde knew that it would be a while, but she couldn’t bear not knowing. They were a bit big, but she threw on some of her brothers’ old clothing, and rode off to find out what happened.

She was afraid every step of the journey, but she was never taught to fear being afraid. Wise men feared, foolish men feared not.

The capital was abuzz when she arrived, and to her dismay, it was for her father’s execution.

Everything felt numb as she watched her father’s head roll away. He dedicated his life to the Crown, he wanted nothing more than his country – his home – to be the best it could be, yet he was merely labelled a treasonous man and met a bloody and inglorious fate instead.

It was unfair, but life was rarely fair.

She should have cried, should have screamed, should have done something, but all her body could do was stare blankly. Even as the crowd dispersed, she remained rooted to her spot, unmoving and unfeeling. The only solace she found was that at least Gisbert and Ernst weren’t there, but what if they had already died? Or worse? Her poor mother…her poor younger siblings…

“Rosamunde…?”

There was a woefully familiar pair of pale eyes before her, and no she could not feel anything anymore and least of all to a murderer’s son. He tentatively reached toward her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder, and please dear Providence don’t touch her because that was all it would take to shatter her.

She said nothing, but she remembered kicking and punching, lashing out however she could at him and it wasn’t his fault his only fault was to be the Crown’s son, and she fled like a coward.

When she arrived back home and told her mother, the older woman didn’t shed a tear either, couldn’t shed a tear. She fell ill, and never recovered, but was never allowed the mercy of death. Ernst came back after her, both legs broken and barely on the mend, and suddenly she was the only one who could provide for her broken family.

Rosamunde never accepted charity, never liked being looked down upon with pity. Her father taught her to survive, taught her that revenge and justice were in the eye of the judge, and by Providence, she would make her own revenge. His enemies wanted him to fall, wanted his family (she briefly wondered if it was one of her maternal grandfather’s enemies, but the man was a snake through and through, so she doubted there were even any left alive) to suffer, so she would deny them that pleasure. She would survive, survive until she thrived.

It mattered not what job she could do, so long as she could do it. If it were a woman’s work, a man’s work, she would do it. So what if her own life was robbed of her own wishes? If her younger brother and sister could thrive, she would be happy. She sold the silver bangle, albeit incredibly reluctantly, but she wasn’t selfish enough to keep it. One day, she told herself, she’d find a way to get it back.

Dignity, honour, morality, who cared? Did dignity put food on the table? Did honour keep the hearth going? Did morality entail survival? Her father was the most dignified, most honourable, most moral man in the world, yet he was undone by the scheming of others.

It took a long time, but at last, she found some sort of peace with herself, and life was difficult, but not unbearable. At least until they showed up again.

They cajoled her into agreeing to heal Prince Volker’s leg, pestered her until they finally found a crack in the walls she carefully built. She always hated Augustin and expected such impudence from him, but from Prince Volker? He had always been good at whittling her down until she was at her most vulnerable.

“Don’t you want to come back with us?” To his credit, he barely flinched when she haphazardly cleaned the wound.

“I’ve left that life.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I don’t want to.”

He was quiet for a bit. “I meant it back then when I said I wanted to marry you.”

She scoffed. “We were children. It meant nothing.”

“It meant everything.” He grabbed her hand. “I won’t marry the Rosenthal girl…I won’t marry anyone other than you.”

She felt pathetic in that moment, letting his mere touch elicit warmth in her chest. She always liked him when she was a child, he made beautiful and wonderful promises to her, but that wasn’t how the world worked. She still liked him, but it felt like a familiar and nostalgic ache somewhere in the back of her heart now.

“If you think wooing me will convince me otherwise, I suggest you stop now.”

“I’m being serious, Roeschen.” His thumb traced her palm. “You’ve suffered out here…Aunt Elfriede…Ernst…all of you have suffered a grave injustice. Don’t you want to clear Uncle Rudolf’s name? Don’t you want to return to your old life?”

In truth, of course she did. What fool would choose a life of hardship over one of ease and comfort? But she was always taught to never want for things that could not be. She wouldn’t want to return to her old life because it was impossible. She wouldn’t want to marry and be in love with Prince Volker because it was impossible. “If you’re going to continue spouting hogwash, I think you should leave now before I’m tempted to chop off your leg.”

That failed to deter him. Instead, he pulled out a familiar silver bangle and held it before her. “This is yours, isn’t it? Uncle Rudolf gave it to you.”

“W-where…?”

“You pawned it, and I was looking for your family’s heirlooms. Come back to the capital with us, Roeschen. Even if…even if you don’t wish to publicly clear Uncle Rudolf’s name, don’t you want to at least help us figure out what happened? Don’t you want to avenge his indignant death?” He leaned a bit closer and said in a quieter voice, “Don’t you want to see Gisbert again?”

Her father wouldn’t want this; her father would call it a fool’s delusion. He would want her to survive, not to fight over sentimentality, but Rosamunde wasn’t her father. She wasn’t that strong.

She closed her eyes, murmuring a quiet apology. “I’ll go then.”

Fic: Lonely, Dark and Deep - ao3 link - Chapter 2

Fandom: Naruto Pairing: Madara/Tobirama, background others Summary:

Hashirama was always going to have to leave Konoha behind one day, but no one was expecting for it to happen so soon.

Tobirama falls apart without his brother.

Madara, mad and bitter and preparing to leave himself, finds that he's now without his best friend and responsible for a village he'd just about given up on.

And now it seems like there's something not quite right with the forest...

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Madara knows exactly how he missed it.

He wasn't looking.

He was consumed by his anger, by his grief, seeing the Izuna-that-could-have-been in every corner of the village. Shopping at the brand new market in the center of town, trying out all the new restaurants that were opening up, flirting outrageously with all the women and some of the men, sitting on the field with a lover and watching the fireworks that marked the anniversary of the founding of the village -

This village is everything he dreamed of as a child, but his brother's death makes it all taste of ash.

Pointless. Pointless! He’s betraying Izuna's final wishes every minute he stays, they all are, every Uchiha every minute their clan submits itself to Senju rule.

But his clan doesn't listen to him anymore.

(Warmonger, they whisper, thinking he wants to go back to the way it was before, children dying out on frontlines where they don’t belong. Eye-stealer, like he would ever.)

The stone tablet showed him another way, though, a better way, a way to make the world peaceful for good. If it causes some death along the way – he doesn't want to think about that. He doesn’t want to think of how much destruction this path will cause, how much betrayal and devastation.

Maybe if the village had chosen him over Hashirama and his empty dreams of peace through love, there could have been another way – but no.

The tablet offers the only real way forward. 

It’s what Izuna would have wanted, he tells himself, and he believes it, too.

Every time before, when his rage threatened to overcome him, Hashirama always seemed to know to come by: some new task that needed to be done, some distraction, something wonderful to show him in their growing village. But this time, Hashirama didn’t come.

Even Hashirama’s given up on me, Madara remembers thinking, wild and bitter. Let him stay in his village with its fake peace, then – but I won’t be here. I won’t be deceived.

He’d settled on leaving at the end of the week and set about putting his affairs in order – he’d expected that to cause Hashirama to come running, but he hadn’t. Madara could have just left then, probably should have, but some little part of him that is still a child skipping stones by the riverbank can’t imagine leaving without giving Hashirama one last chance to convince him to stay.

When Hashirama still does not come, Madara goes to find him. 

What he finds –

Tobirama is crying.

That’s the first thing he remembers – the first really clear image in weeks, to be honest, even months, in all the time that has passed ever since Izuna died – a shock like a kunai plunged directly his heart, shock so strong that it penetrates even the fog of grief and rage that always surrounds him now.

Tobirama never cries.

Previously, if asked, Madara would have said he wasn’t even sure the man could. As far as Madara knew, the man hadn’t even cried as a child, not even at the deaths of his own brothers: soulless and heartless, existing but not living, an automaton that mocked Madara by continuing to breathe when vibrant, exuberant Izuna did not.

But doubts aside, Madara cannot deny what his eyes are seeing: Tobirama is crying. 

And he isn’t crying the way Madara would have imagined Tobirama might cry, to the extent he’d thought of it: something all stoic and dignified and maybe a single tear glistening on his cheek for half a second before he wiped it away and buried his pain.

No, this is ugly – Tobirama is on his knees, curled over on himself, his shoulders heaving and tears streaming down his face, mouth agape with silent screams of agony.

“Have you been poisoned?” Madara demands, alarmed, horrified; it’s one thing to demand the man’s death, knowing that Hashirama would never agree – another thing entirely to watch him die right there in front of him by some hand other than his own, robbing Hashirama of his last brother the way Madara was robbed. Whatever their differences, whatever betrayal Madara has planned for the future, Hashirama is still too dear to Madara for him to wish such a fate on him. “You need a healer –” 

Tobirama shakes his head.

“A jutsu, then?” Madara asks, immediately thinking about what jutsu-breakers he knows, and about the strategic vulnerability such an attack presents to the village – if someone had a jutsu that could take out Tobirama in the middle of Konoha, they were all at risk, every one of them. “Some sort of long-distance torture –”

“No,” Tobirama says, his voice raspy and wet. “Nothing like that.” 

Madara stares at him. “Then what…?”

“Hashirama is gone.”

That’s when Madara sees the hat Tobirama is bent over, wrapping his body around it as if he’s trying futilely to protect it even as the pressure of his fingers cause furrows to run through it.

The ridiculous, stupid hat that somehow everyone had decided signified the position of Hokage.

Hashirama’s hat.

Hashirama –

“Gone?” he says faintly, and he finds suddenly that he’s sitting on the floor when a second ago he’d been standing.

It cannot be true. It cannot be.

Hashirama – he’d seen him just the day before, walking through the village with that strange new distant look in his eyes. He’d been fine. How could he be gone?

(Losing Izuna had destroyed the foundation of Madara’s life – but somehow Madara’d never even considered the possibility of losing Hashirama, not to anything but his own hand. They were best friends, they were mortal enemies, they were the possibility of something more, some deep and fundamental binding together of their very souls, but they were above all else each other’s.)

Tobirama nods mutely, as if in saying that much he’d used up whatever store of words he had, and goes back to crying. Here are the tears Madara couldn’t shed for Izuna, frozen in grief as he has been, and all the ones Tobirama hadn’t shed for his younger brothers, too.

All of them are here, now, the sobs ripping their way through Tobirama’s body and it must be true, then, what he says, but Madara still can’t believe it.

“How?” he asks, even though he doesn’t really want to know. The thought of Hashirama, brilliant powerful Hashirama, dead – a thousand images pulled from a thousand battlefields spring into Madara’s mind at once, Hashirama’s lips bloody from the last rasp of breath, face bloated from drowning, body charred to ashes from fire or lightning, fingers ripped apart from trying to dig his way to the surface for air…so many ways to die.

All of it meaningless. In the end the result is the same: Hashirama, dead.

Hashirama, dead.

That’s when the anger steals in underneath the grief.

“No,” Madara says, because the how is unimportant. What matters is – “Who?”

Tell me who to blame, he means, tell me I can get revenge, tell me I can make this better by hurting whoever hurt him – but Tobirama is already shaking his head.

“Peace,” he says, trying to use his sleeve to wipe at his eyes, a fairly futile endeavor. “His peace. Your peace. That’s all.”

Madara frowns, confusing mixing with the anger, staying his always far-too-ready hand. “What? What are you talking about?”

He can’t have heard that right.

Tobirama laughs, sharp and jagged and sounding like it hurt him to do. “You Uchiha,” he says. “You and your curse of hatred, your Sharingan born of pain…did it never occur to you that the Senju have a flaw, too?”

It hadn’t. Not once.

“Everyone knows the Uchiha love too much, too selfishly,” Tobirama says, his lips pulled back into a snarl that’s more of a grimace of pain than anything else. “Well, we Senju have the opposite problem.”

“What, you love the whole world, and it’s a problem?” Madara sneers.

“Yes, it’s a problem!” Tobirama spits back at him. “Hashirama forgets he has children because his village, his peace, is more important to him. My father put defeating the Uchiha above everything – he went to battle the day after my mother died, just because it would give our side the slightest additional advantage in positioning.”

Madara knows this to be true, and it’s always puzzled him. Putting Butsuma aside, how could Hashirama, who loves so strongly, be so neglectful?

Tobirama shakes his head at Madara’s confusion. “You really don’t know, do you?” he asks, his shoulders sagging. “You Uchiha have love. We Senju have principles – one principle for each person, a thousand or more to choose from, but from that principle we do not bend lest we break, and our minds doom us as surely as your hearts do you.”

Madara opens his mouth, then closes it. He’s never thought – that makes no sense – but it does. 

It actually does make sense, in a sick sort of way.

No wonder Butsuma barely batted an eye when Hashirama declared himself willing to oppose his own clan over the question of peace, for all his rage that his son was consorting with Madara in the first place. It had been as if Hashirama’s blasphemous choice hadn’t really surprised him, and as far as Madara knew Hashirama had never suffered any serious consequences for making it – not the way Madara would have, if he’d chosen the same.

So many stories, over the years, all now explained –

Senju inexplicably making last stands when no sacrifice really seemed to be called for. 

Senju fighting like demons possessed, unwilling to ever yield, for no apparent reason.

Senju who terrified even the Uchiha with the extent to which they would seek revenge not for a beloved person, which was something that every Uchiha could understand, but simply for a cause…

Madara opens his mouth to ask what Tobirama’s principle is, but – he knows.

Tobirama, ever the odd duckling of his family, devoted his life to that most un-Senju of principles, a goal more properly fit for an Uchiha: the happiness of his brothers. 

No wonder he couldn’t forgive the Uchiha for his younger brother’s death, even if that too-logical mind of his agreed to give up revenge in favor of working with them for the greater good that was Hashirama’s dream of a peaceful and unified village. 

No wonder he didn’t trust them – he’s too much like them. He knows how they feel, how they grieve, how they rage. In his position, Madara wouldn’t trust his clan either – there’s a reason they usually kill people who end up like Madara is now.

This is the first time it’s occurred to Madara to wonder why they haven’t. 

Tobirama has no brothers left, now. Just like Madara.

“What happened?” Madara asks, suddenly desperate to know. “What happened to Hashirama?” 

Tobirama’s shoulders move, a pale imitation of his usual caustic shrug. “He has the Mokuton,” he says. “It’s – it’s like your Sharingan, like your Mangekyo, only much, much less common. It’s not necessary, we all suffer from our principles regardless, but having it makes the effects of it far worse. Hashirama had it worst of all.”

“But Hashirama’s principle is the village,” Madara says, still stubborn. “Even if Hashirama was willing to devote everything to it –”

And he was, Madara knew he was: he would kill Madara for it, if it came to that – 

No. Not just that.

That isn’t the truest measure of Hashirama’s devotion, killing Madara, not the way he thought it’d be – now that he can think clearly, though, he knows what is. 

Hashirama – he would even have killed Tobirama for the village, wouldn’t he?

When Madara, maddened by Izuna’s death, had demanded Hashirama kill Tobirama or himself as the price of peace between them, Hashirama had only thanked him for offering him the option. 

Madara had thought that was because Hashirama trusted Madara not to make him pay the price, that he wanted to demonstrate that he, too, loved his brother – and even if he thought Madara did mean it, it was an easy choice, really; the same choice Madara would have made, the same choice any Uchiha would make. Now for the first time it occurs to him that perhaps Hashirama had thanked him not because of that, but rather because if Madara hadn’t given him the choice, if Madara had set the price of peace as Tobirama’s blood or nothing, Hashirama would have –

He would have –

(Tobirama had been afraid, when Madara had named his price. The knuckles of the fingers wrapped around his sword had been white, Madara’s Sharingan reminds him, and he’d been so afraid – afraid, yes, but strangely resigned, too. He’d asked if Hashirama would kill him for the sake of his village, for Madara’s sake. And if Hashirama hadn’t loved his brother just a little bit more than he loved himself, he might have done it.)

Madara shakes his head to try to banish the trembling of his heart and continues. “Even if Hashirama was willing to give up everything for the village, why would that kill him? How?”

“Because Hashirama’s principle isn’t a village,” Tobirama says. “It’s peace. The Mokuton…the old legends of the Senju say that for all that we’re a clan without a single limit, the thousand talents, the very first one we ever had was the Mokuton, a gift from the forest. They say that every few generations, we’re gifted again: the forest will lend someone its strength to fight for what they believe in, but it’s a loan. If that person dies in battle, their body is returned to the forest as tribute. If they don’t die, if they live long enough to see their dream fulfilled…it takes them back.”

Madara doesn’t like the sound of that.

“What happened to Hashirama?” he demands again, seized by a sudden fear. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”

Stoic Meditations Dated prior 20/02/20

- Never hate, only disapprove

Of what? Iniquity

Never

Never

Never it’s agents

- In this infinitely puzzling and complex reality, there exist only three constants: Pain, pleasure, and death.

Every time your will wavers, remember that whatever terror you have will inevitably be equalized by security.

Every instance of hedonism must be negated by the reminder of life’s great equalizer: Death. This life is the only one you will ever have. It is everything you have. A time after it is gone cannot be comprehended any more than the time before it was made.

There are no souls, there are no gods, all we are is meat and bone. Despite this reality, the human passions are well and still alive. The answer is not to discard them- for they are what drive being- but to guide them towards a goal. One that is, more than pleasurable, respectable.

Ask yourself this: Were you to die, today or tomorrow, would you be satisfied with whatever life you have lead? Or, more pressingly, with whatever impulses you are currently possessed by?

The way of character is lived in a constant acknowledgement of death. This may seem like a bleak and wretched existence, but remember that just as no joy lasts, nor can any pain. Thus, the meditation on mortality becomes an invaluable guide for the life lived virtuously.

- There is a nature which binds the people. We were born to cooperate, and all non-cooperation is a defiance of nature. This is what Aurelius believed.

However, Joshua Green, among many others, has proven that tribalism is inherent to humanity. This does not mean that human tendencies are towards conflict, rather, it means that the tendencies of human groups are towards conflict. Therefore, Aurelius’ writings regarding social equanimity may be considered relevant, in the sense that one may decide on a group, consider that group his or her nature, with all disagreements within it representing said natures perversions.

A problem then arises in the criteria by which to choose one group over another. Many latch on to religions and political ideologies, and while this is not itself wrong, i can easily lead to fanaticism, and that ultimately, these large impersonal organizations will kill, rob, and rape whenever it is within their interests. It is only those with whom you share closeness who may consider your well being a genuine interest of their own, as an end rather than merely a mean. Loyalty to those who are not close must be tempered.

- On Fantasies (And Death)

It is natural for the human being to desire what it lacks (Or more accurately, what it believes it lacks), but these desires are only useful according to their ability to bring about an outcome

It is possible, that these desires- when overdeveloped- actually work against themselves. Particularly, in the fantasies they create.

These fantasies- of lust, power, and peace- depend on perceptions of what is had versus what is missing, and are ultimately built on a wish for happiness, specifically, it’s maximization. Due to this, they become addictions. Toil and sweat for a better future or fall into diversions for a better now, which more gratifying?

Fantasies are naught but distractions and must be killed. The question is: How to do it?

You cannot remove a fantasy by the achievement of it’s goal, for they obstruct the will necessary to work them.

Abstinence? Every thought is created twice, once in the mind, and once in reality. So many ideas possess the mind that they could not possibly be counted, so why is it tat are actions are, in comparison, so few? There must be filtration mechanism. Perhaps, it is the action which reinforces a thought. Thought leads to action, which creates thoughts, which breed further action, and so on.

Meaning, it is through abstinence from these actions that control over will may be achieved. However, it may be possible for fantasies to be sustained by nothing other than their own persistent presence, even without any affirmative action. So, how to kill these especially potent daydreams.

If these visions are housed by thought, maybe find a way to bring those thoughts collapsing down on them as a weapon. I referred to a collapse, but really the idea is more precise.

Target these wishes with the acknowledgement of mortality, described in greater detail above

- Whenever you find yourself dreading a confrontation, conflict, or any fearful future, say to yourself this: “I have lived the same life a dozen times over, and then some.” Everything which happens to you has happened before, meaning that you get to change the past through the present, a sort of time travel, and assess how you have, if at all, changed. This is what Aurelius meant by having ‘an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for everything that comes your way’. This is what Nietzsche might have meant by the ‘Endless opportunity present in every moment’. The scream and cursing and shaking and uncertainty, it will all happen again. These words would fill most with an indescribable terror, yet instill within yourself a fascination equal in it’s girth. Yes, indeed, it is all happening again, and it is lovely.

- My various stoic mantras

2018. Calm, confident, stoic: The immortal’s way.

2020. There is that which is within my control and that which is not.

         . Do not degrade yourself

         . Do not allow your mind to be jerked about by impulses.

         . Let your thoughts be directed towards something.

- What do I want for the future? Which point in the future? Is what I want virtuous? Is it carefully considered? How do I practically achieve it? How do I change my lifestyle to do so?

- Must have clarity of my purpose, goals, and relationships. Will be achieved through meditation, documentation, and analysis.

- The two minds may be visualized as a dog and owner. The dog’s tendencies are towards ease, comfort, pleasure, and self-harm. It is the owner’s duty to keep it from ruin.

- The unfortunate dependence of virtue upon pleasure.

Joy and principles are like Atlas and the Earth.

My abstinence oriented spin on Stoicism may need to be swapped for it’s closest pragmatic cousin.

- Love your neighbor, your enemy, and fate. This love, the love of stoics, can be progressed only through practice.

- Treat all people as if they were vaults of treasure.

- Joy is not the same as cheerfulness. Joy is when the world has fallen apart, and one is still content. It is found not in parties, nor vacations, but in sick wards, funerals, and prisoner camps.

- Love received from others is an external, beyond your control. There is no virtue in receiving love. Indeed, it is far more respectable to love yourself.

Some fear this love of the self may lead to narcissism, but such fears are baseless, as the danger of the narcissist resulting from their mistreatment of others stems from their inability to believe that they themselves could b loved. As in, it is the very same lack of self esteem which creates abusive behavior.

Remember, you are not unique. You decided to treat others with compassion. Combining these two statements, the lesson is that you must treat yourself with compassion, for your dealings with others mirror your dealings with the self. After all, to harm yourself is to create and perpetuate insecurity.

So what if you are not loved? Even if your family left, and you never found camaraderie, so what? These are externals, beyond your control. What you can control are your perceptions. Since all pain is descended from these, nothing can harm you except for yourself.

If everybody leaves? So be it. If there wasn’t a soul on the planet who would care for you? So b it. What you can do is care for yourself, attempt to care for all others you meet, and satisfy your duties as a dignified and respectable human being.

If you can manage that =much, then you will need nothing more.

- Become an observer of your own thoughts.

- Intelligence is derived from results. Therefore, whatever it is you do in your free time, be it television or research, does not indicate your competency. If you do not reach your goals, then you are a dunce.

- At daybreak, go out: run, strike, burn, kill yourself just a little. Not out of any suicidal intent, nor any masochism, but out of an honest desire to remind yourself of your limits, and eventually, expand them.

- What are emotions? Are they passions, lust, or the greatest good? No. They are, simply put, enablers of problem solving. When there is a threat, there arises fear, triggering flight. When retreat is not an option, anger activates, and combat begins. Similarly, whenever there is pleasure, your cheeks widen. When fear is overwhelming, your bladder loosens. These signs are preceded by an indescribable sensation, unfathomable in strength and shackling for small minds. It is the truly educated who control them as a scientist would independent variables. For life is nothing more than an experiment, in which all we are doing is discovering the path nature has set in advance. Oversee your emotions, and never permits the reverse.

- For clarity, exercise to wake the mind, and meditate to remind of it’s purpose. Action for the common good? Study for the majority of a day. Practice the will t bear what is necessary through visualizations of worst case scenarios at night, alongside reflections on the day for further clarity.

Pope Francis addresses Egypt's civil authorities: Full text

(Vatican Radio) Full text of Pope Francis address to Government Authorities and the Diplomatic Corps. 

Click here to see our report.

Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to Government Authorities and the Diplomatic Corps

Heliopolis, Egypt

28 April 2017

Mr President,

Honourable Members of Government and Parliament, Distinguished Ambassadors and Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As-salamu alaykum!  Peace be with you!

I thank you, Mr President, for your cordial words of greeting and for your kind invitation to visit your beloved country.  I have vivid memories of your visit to Rome in November 2014, my fraternal meeting with his Holiness Pope Tawadros II in 2013, and my meeting last year with the Grand Imam of the University of Al-Azhar, Dr Ahmad Al-Tayyib.

I am happy to be here in Egypt, a land of ancient and noble civilization, whose vestiges we can admire even today; in their majestic splendour they appear to withstand the passing of time.  This land is significant for the history of humanity and for the Church’s tradition, not only because of its prestigious past – that of Pharaohs, Copts and Muslims – but also because so many of the Patriarchs lived in Egypt or passed through it.  Indeed, Egypt is often mentioned in the sacred Scriptures.  In this land, God spoke and “revealed his name to Moses” (JOHN PAUL II, Welcome Ceremony, 24 February 2000: Insegnamenti XXIII, 1 [2000], 248), and on Mount Sinai he entrusted to his people and to all humanity the divine Commandments.  On Egyptian soil the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph found refuge and hospitality.

The generous hospitality shown more than two thousand years ago remains in the collective memory of humanity and is a source of abundant blessings that continue to expand.  As a result, Egypt is a land that in some sense we all feel to be our own!  As you say, “Misr um al-dunya” – “Egypt is the mother of the world”.  Today too, this land welcomes millions of refugees from different countries, including Sudan, Eritrea, Syria and Iraq, refugees whom you make praiseworthy efforts to integrate into Egyptian society.

Thanks to its history and its particular geographical location, Egypt has a unique role to play in the Middle East and among those countries seeking solutions to pressing and complex problems that need to be faced now in order to avoid the spread of worse violence.  I am speaking of the blind and brutal violence caused by different factors: sheer desire for power, the arms trade, grave social problems and that religious extremism which uses the Holy Name of God to carry out unprecedented atrocities and injustices.

This destiny and role of Egypt are also the reason that led the people to call for an Egypt where no one lacks bread, freedom and social justice.  Certainly this aim will become a reality if all are willing, together, to turn words into actions, authentic aspirations into commitments, written laws into enforced laws, by drawing on the innate genius of the Egyptian people.

Egypt thus has a singular task, namely, to strengthen and consolidate regional peace even as it is assaulted on its own soil by senseless acts of violence.  Such acts of violence have caused unjust suffering to so many families – some of them are present among us – who mourn their sons and daughters.

I think in a particular way of all those individuals who in recent years have given their lives to protect your country: young people, members of the armed forces and police, Coptic citizens and all those nameless victims of various forms of terrorist extremism.  I think also of the murders and the threats that have led to an exodus of Christians from northern Sinai.  I express my gratitude to the civil and religious authorities and to all those who have offered welcome and assistance to these persons who have suffered so greatly.  I also think of the victims of the attacks on Coptic churches, both last December and more recently in Tanta and Alexandria.  To the members of their families, and to all of Egypt, I offer my heartfelt condolences and my prayers that the Lord will grant speedy healing to the injured.

Mr President, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I can only encourage the bold efforts being made to complete a number of national projects and the many initiatives of peace-making, both within the country and beyond its borders, aimed at that development in prosperity and peace which its people desire and deserve.

Development, prosperity and peace are essential goods that merit every sacrifice.  They are also goals that demand hard work, conviction and commitment, adequate planning and, above all, unconditional respect for inalienable human rights such as equality among all citizens, religious freedom and freedom of expression, without any distinction (cf. Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Egyptian Constitution of 2014, Chapter 3) .  Goals, too, that require special consideration for the role of women, young people, the poor and the sick.  Ultimately, true development is measured by concern for human beings, who are the heart of all development: concern for their education, health and dignity.  The greatness of any nation is revealed in its effective care of society’s most vulnerable members – women, children, the elderly, the sick, the disabled and minorities – lest any person or social group be excluded or marginalized.

In the fragile and complex situation of today’s world, which I have described as “a world war being fought piecemeal”, it needs to be clearly stated that no civilized society can be built without repudiating every ideology of evil, violence and extremism that presumes to suppress others and to annihilate diversity by manipulating and profaning the Sacred Name of God.  Mr President, you have spoken of this often and on various occasions, with a clarity that merits attention and appreciation.

All of us have the duty to teach coming generations that God, the Creator of heaven and earth, does not need to be protected by men; indeed, it is he who protects them.  He never desires the death of his children, but rather their life and happiness.  He can neither demand nor justify violence; indeed, he detests and rejects violence (“God… hates the lover of violence”: Ps 11:5).  The true God calls to unconditional love, gratuitous pardon, mercy, absolute respect for every life, and fraternity among his children, believers and nonbelievers alike.

It is our duty to proclaim together that history does not forgive those who preach justice, but then practice injustice.  History does not forgive those who talk about equality, but then discard those who are different.  It is our duty to unmask the peddlers of illusions about the afterlife, those who preach hatred in order to rob the simple of their present life and their right to live with dignity, and who exploit others by taking away their ability to choose freely and to believe responsibly.  It is our duty to dismantle deadly ideas and extremist ideologies, while upholding the incompatibility of true faith and violence, of God and acts of murder.

History instead honours men and women of peace, who courageously and non-violently strive to build a better world: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9).

Egypt, in the days of Joseph, saved other peoples from famine (cf. Gen 47:57); today it is called to save this beloved region from a famine of love and fraternity.  It is called to condemn and vanquish all violence and terrorism.  It is called to pour out the grain of peace upon all hearts that hunger for peaceful coexistence, dignified employment and humane education.  Egypt, in building peace and at the same time combatting terrorism, is called to give proof that “al-din lillah wal watan liljami” – religion belongs to God and the nation to all”, as the motto of the Revolution of 23 July 1952 states.  Egypt is called to demonstrate that it is possible to believe and live in harmony with others, sharing with them fundamental human values and respecting the freedom and the faith of all (cf. Egyptian Constitution of 2014, Article 5).  Egypt has a special role to play in this regard, so that this region, the cradle of the three great religions, can and indeed will awake from the long night of tribulation, and once more radiate the supreme values of justice and fraternity that are the solid foundation and the necessary path to peace (cf. Message for the 2014 World Day of Peace, 4).  From great nations, one can expect no less!

This year marks the seventieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Arab Republic of Egypt, which was one of the first Arab countries to establish such relations.  Those relations have always been characterized by friendship, esteem and reciprocal cooperation.  It is my hope that my Visit may help to consolidate and strengthen them.

Peace is a gift of God, but also the work of man.  It is a good that must be built up and protected, respecting the principle that upholds the force of law and not the law of force (cf. Message for the 2017 World Day of Peace, 1).  Peace for this beloved country!  Peace for this whole region, and particularly for Palestine and Israel, for Syria, for Libya, Yemen, for Iraq, for South Sudan.  Peace to all people of good will!

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to greet with affection and a paternal embrace all the Egyptian people, who are symbolically present in this hall.  I also greet my Christian sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, who live in this country: Coptic Orthodox, Greek Byzantines, Armenian Orthodox, Protestants and Catholics.  May Saint Mark, the evangelizer of this land, watch over you and help all of us to build and achieve the unity so greatly desired by our Lord (cf. Jn 17:20-23).  Your presence in this, your country, is not new or accidental, but ancient and an inseparable part of the history of Egypt.  You are an integral part of this country, and over the course of the centuries you have developed a sort of unique rapport, a particular symbiosis, which can serve as an example to other nations.  You have shown, and continue to show, that it is possible to live together in mutual respect and fairness, finding in difference a source of richness and never a motive of conflict (cf. BENEDICT XVI, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 24 and 25).

Thank you for your warm welcome.  I ask the Almighty and One God to fill all the Egyptian people with his divine blessings.  May he grant peace and prosperity, progress and justice to Egypt, and bless all her children!

“Blessed be Egypt my people”, says the Lord in the Book of Isaiah (19:25).

Shukran wa tahya misr!  Thank you and long live Egypt!

(from Vatican Radio) from News.va http://ift.tt/2oThMq5 via IFTTT from Blogger http://ift.tt/2pcXKcr

28th April >> Pope Francis' Full Speech to Egyptian Authorities

Mr President, Honourable Members of Government and Parliament, Distinguished Ambassadors and Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ladies and Gentlemen, As-salamu alaykum! Peace be with you! I thank you, Mr President, for your cordial words of greeting and for your kind invitation to visit your beloved country. I have vivid memories of your visit to Rome in November 2014, my fraternal meeting with his Holiness Pope Tawadros II in 2013, and my meeting last year with the Grand Imam of the University of Al-Azhar, Dr Ahmad Al-Tayyib. I am happy to be here in Egypt, a land of ancient and noble civilization, whose vestiges we can admire even today; in their majestic splendour they appear to withstand the passing of time. This land is significant for the history of humanity and for the Church’s tradition, not only because of its prestigious past – that of Pharaohs, Copts and Muslims – but also because so many of the Patriarchs lived in Egypt or passed through it. Indeed, Egypt is often mentioned in the sacred Scriptures. In this land, God spoke and "revealed his name to Moses” (JOHN PAUL II, Welcome Ceremony, 24 February 2000: Insegnamenti XXIII, 1 [2000], 248), and on Mount Sinai he entrusted to his people and to all humanity the divine Commandments. On Egyptian soil the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph found refuge and hospitality. The generous hospitality shown more than two thousand years ago remains in the collective memory of humanity and is a source of abundant blessings that continue to expand. As a result, Egypt is a land that in some sense we all feel to be our own! As you say, "Misr um al-dunya” – "Egypt is the mother of the world”. Today too, this land welcomes millions of refugees from different countries, including Sudan, Eritrea, Syria and Iraq, refugees whom you make praiseworthy efforts to integrate into Egyptian society. Thanks to its history and its particular geographical location, Egypt has a unique role to play in the Middle East and among those countries seeking solutions to pressing and complex problems that need to be faced now in order to avoid the spread of worse violence. I am speaking of the blind and brutal violence caused by different factors: sheer desire for power, the arms trade, grave social problems and that religious extremism which uses the Holy Name of God to carry out unprecedented atrocities and injustices. This destiny and role of Egypt are also the reason that led the people to call for an Egypt where no one lacks bread, freedom and social justice. Certainly this aim will become a reality if all are willing, together, to turn words into actions, authentic aspirations into commitments, written laws into enforced laws, by drawing on the innate genius of the Egyptian people. Egypt thus has a singular task, namely, to strengthen and consolidate regional peace even as it is assaulted on its own soil by senseless acts of violence. Such acts of violence have caused unjust suffering to so many families – some of them are present among us – who mourn their sons and daughters. I think in a particular way of all those individuals who in recent years have given their lives to protect your country: young people, members of the armed forces and police, Coptic citizens and all those nameless victims of various forms of terrorist extremism. I think also of the murders and the threats that have led to an exodus of Christians from northern Sinai. I express my gratitude to the civil and religious authorities and to all those who have offered welcome and assistance to these persons who have suffered so greatly. I also think of the victims of the attacks on Coptic churches, both last December and more recently in Tanta and Alexandria. To the members of their families, and to all of Egypt, I offer my heartfelt condolences and my prayers that the Lord will grant speedy healing to the injured. Mr President, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I can only encourage the bold efforts being made to complete a number of national projects and the many initiatives of peacemaking, both within the country and beyond its borders, aimed at that development in prosperity and peace which its people desire and deserve. Development, prosperity and peace are essential goods that merit every sacrifice. They are also goals that demand hard work, conviction and commitment, adequate planning and, above all, unconditional respect for inalienable human rights such as equality among all citizens, religious freedom and freedom of expression, without any distinction (cf. Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Egyptian Constitution of 2014, Chapter 3). Goals, too, that require special consideration for the role of women, young people, the poor and the sick. Ultimately, true development is measured by concern for human beings, who are the heart of all development: concern for their education, health and dignity. The greatness of any nation is revealed in its effective care of society’s most vulnerable members – women, children, the elderly, the sick, the disabled and minorities – lest any person or social group be excluded or marginalized. In the fragile and complex situation of today’s world, which I have described as "a world war being fought piecemeal”, it needs to be clearly stated that no civilized society can be built without repudiating every ideology of evil, violence and extremism that presumes to suppress others and to annihilate diversity by manipulating and profaning the Sacred Name of God. Mr President, you have spoken of this often and on various occasions, with a clarity that merits attention and appreciation. All of us have the duty to teach coming generations that God, the Creator of heaven and earth, does not need to be protected by men; indeed, it is he who protects them. He never desires the death of his children, but rather their life and happiness. He can neither demand nor justify violence; indeed, he detests and rejects violence ("God... hates the lover of violence”: Ps 11:5). The true God calls to unconditional love, gratuitous pardon, mercy, absolute respect for every life, and fraternity among his children, believers and nonbelievers alike. It is our duty to proclaim together that history does not forgive those who preach justice, but then practice injustice. History does not forgive those who talk about equality, but then discard those who are different. It is our duty to unmask the peddlers of illusions about the afterlife, those who preach hatred in order to rob the simple of their present life and their right to live with dignity, and who exploit others by taking away their ability to choose freely and to believe responsibly. It is our duty to dismantle deadly ideas and extremist ideologies, while upholding the incompatibility of true faith and violence, of God and acts of murder. History instead honours men and women of peace, who courageously and non-violently strive to build a better world: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9). Egypt, in the days of Joseph, saved other peoples from famine (cf. Gen 47:57); today it is called to save this beloved region from a famine of love and fraternity. It is called to condemn and vanquish all violence and terrorism. It is called to pour out the grain of peace upon all hearts that hunger for peaceful coexistence, dignified employment and humane education. Egypt, in building peace and at the same time combatting terrorism, is called to give proof that "al-din lillah wal watan liljami” – religion belongs to God and the nation to all”, as the motto of the Revolution of 23 July 1952 states. Egypt is called to demonstrate that it is possible to believe and live in harmony with others, sharing with them fundamental human values and respecting the freedom and the faith of all (cf. Egyptian Constitution of 2014, Article 5). Egypt has a special role to play in this regard, so that this region, the cradle of the three great religions, can and indeed will awake from the long night of tribulation, and once more radiate the supreme values of justice and fraternity that are the solid foundation and the necessary path to peace (cf. Message for the 2014 World Day of Peace, 4). From great nations, one can expect no less! This year marks the seventieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Arab Republic of Egypt, which was one of the first Arab countries to establish such relations. Those relations have always been characterized by friendship, esteem and reciprocal cooperation. It is my hope that my Visit may help to consolidate and strengthen them. Peace is a gift of God, but also the work of man. It is a good that must be built up and protected, respecting the principle that upholds the force of law and not the law of force (cf. Message for the 2017 World Day of Peace, 1). Peace for this beloved country! Peace for this whole region, and particularly for Palestine and Israel, for Syria, for Libya, Yemen, for Iraq, for South Sudan. Peace to all people of good will! Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to greet with affection and a paternal embrace all the Egyptian people, who are symbolically present in this hall. I also greet my Christian sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, who live in this country: Coptic Orthodox, Greek Byzantines, Armenian Orthodox, Protestants and Catholics. May Saint Mark, the evangelizer of this land, watch over you and help all of us to build and achieve the unity so greatly desired by our Lord (cf. Jn 17:20-23). Your presence in this, your country, is not new or accidental, but ancient and an inseparable part of the history of Egypt. You are an integral part of this country, and over the course of the centuries you have developed a sort of unique rapport, a particular symbiosis, which can serve as an example to other nations. You have shown, and continue to show, that it is possible to live together in mutual respect and fairness, finding in difference a source of richness and never a motive of conflict (cf. BENEDICT XVI, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 24 and 25). Thank you for your warm welcome. I ask the Almighty and One God to fill all the Egyptian people with his divine blessings. May he grant peace and prosperity, progress and justice to Egypt, and bless all her children! "Blessed be Egypt my people”, says the Lord in the Book of Isaiah (19:25). Shukran wa tahya misr! Thank you and long live Egypt!