Seneca stood at the peak of his career in Rome, as orator, writer and man of the world, when emperor Claudius banished him in the year 41, on a dubious accusation, to Corsica: in those days a bare, remote island. No audience, no politics, no end date. It would last eight years. Seneca wrote his consolations there, including one to his mother Helvia, in which he consoles her about his own exile. His reasoning: an exile loses his place, not his mind; nature and the stars are the same everywhere. In 49 he was recalled, and became the most influential thinker in Rome.
From the center of the world to a rock in the sea, for an unknown length of time. Not knowing how long something lasts is often heavier than the thing itself.
The accusation, the sentence and the duration: beyond his reach. What simply continued on the island: reading, thinking, writing, and the choice of who he was while he waited. He filled the emptiness not with resentment but with work, and the work outlived the emperor.
In which waiting room of your life are you sitting now? And what could you make there if you stopped staring at the door?
Yours, Not Yours · A Stoic practice ground · All cases