Be Carried Away

Appearance is a very controversial thing. Billions of dollars are spent for appearance, physical appearance, marketing appearance, money appearance, etc. We were raised to buy appearance. Specially be carried away by it. In the industry, most of the budget is used in selling appearance, the marketing industry is one of the biggest industries and they specialize in appearance. Make up! Being skinny, buying nice cloths, hair cuts, it is al about learning how to sell your appearance. And even though we are told a million times that it is what’s inside that counts and not the outside, we keep on buying make up and judging appearances. Epictetus Handbook, in sections 16, 18, 19 and 20 says, “do not be carried away by the appearance.” I think it is a very strong statement. When you buy something, even though you want it, you are buying its appearance, what you see, what you get through your eyes. As Epictetus says, if you do, you are not be free. You have to know what are the things that are up to you, appearances are not. “Most importantly, therefore, try not to be carried away by appearance, since if you once gain time and delay you will control yourself more easily.” (Section 20) How can you gain time and delay? The only way is by letting things flow, as I stated in the previous blog. If I can learn as much as I want form this Handbook, I will at least try not to get carried away, but try, as the cliché says, look in the insight and control myself more easily.