Julius Canus, a philosopher at the court of emperor Caligula, had contradicted the emperor. Caligula sentenced him to death and made him wait ten days. Canus spent those days much as he had spent the days before. When the centurion came for him, he was playing a board game. He counted the pieces, pointed at his opponent and said: you will testify that I was one piece ahead. To his weeping friends he said: you wonder whether the soul is immortal; I shall know in a moment. Seneca told the story in his book on tranquility of mind, not as heroism but as proof that a person can fill his last ten days himself.
Ten days that belong to nobody anymore: too short to start anything, too long to hold out. The temptation is to die in advance.
The sentence, the date and the centurion: the emperor's. The ten days themselves: Canus'. He refused to pay for the part taken from him with the part he still had, and played out his game. That his opponent had to confirm the lead is not bravado but the point: something still at stake was genuinely his.
Which outcome are you waiting for, and how many of your days are you paying forward already? What is your game that you could simply play out?
Yours, Not Yours · A Stoic practice ground · All cases