【每日斯多葛】9月26日

September 26th  

WHAT TIME OFF IS FOR

“Leisure without study is death—a tomb for the living person.”

—SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 82.4

You deserve a vacation. You work hard. You sacrifice. You push yourself. It’s time for a break. Hop a plane, check into your hotel, and head to the beach—but tuck a book under your arm (and not a trashy beach read). Make sure you enjoy your relaxation like a poet—not idly but actively, observing the world around you, taking it all in, better understanding your place in the universe. Take a day off from work every now and then, but not a day off from learning.

Maybe your goal is to make enough money so that you can retire early. Good for you! But the purpose of retirement is not to live a life of indolence or to run out the clock, as easy as that might be to do. Rather, it’s to allow for the pursuit of your real calling now that a big distraction is out of the way. To sit around all day and do nothing? To watch endless amounts of television or simply travel from place to place so that you might cross locations off a checklist? That is not life. It’s not freedom either.

9月26日  

休假究竟是为了什么

“没有学习的闲暇就是死亡——是活人的坟墓。”

——塞内卡，《道德书信》，82.4

你值得拥有一个假期。你努力工作，你付出牺牲，你不断鞭策自己。现在是时候休息一下了。坐上飞机，入住酒店，然后前往海滩——但别忘了在胳膊下夹一本书（而且不要是那种毫无营养的海滩消遣读物）。要像诗人一样享受休闲——不是无所事事地，而是积极主动地观察周围的世界，充分感受这一切，更好地理解自己在宇宙中的位置。时不时给自己放一天工作上的假，但不要给学习放假。

也许你的目标是赚到足够的钱，以便提前退休。那很好！但退休的目的不是过一种懒散无为的生活，也不是仅仅消磨余生，尽管那样做可能很容易。相反，退休是为了让你在摆脱了一项巨大的干扰之后，能够去追求自己真正的使命。整天坐在那里，什么也不做？没完没了地看电视，或者只是从一个地方旅行到另一个地方，好把这些地点从旅行清单上划掉？那不是生活，也不是自由。