Which way will you choose to interpret the events happening around you? What we learn from Stoic philosophy is that “Every situation has two handles”. One handle can carry the situation, the other cannot. We experience this throughout our lives and learn the lesson quite naturally, but of course, we forget it at some point.
Last October I was hiking in West Virginia with some rock climbing friends and my daughter. Our guide took us on a route through the woods to a climbing spot that he thought was going to be quick. It turned out to not just be the long way, but it was uncharted terrain with no actual path. What was supposed to be a 15-minute walk into a climbing area turned into a two-hour saga that we likened to Sam & Frodo hiking across Middle Earth to Mordor.
I was a little ticked off. My daughter, on the other hand, was singing songs and sparing no opportunity to verbalize how beautiful the woods were. We’d never been in this part of West Virginia before. It was practically like a rain forest. I chose
I was holding the wrong handle. She had the right one, and it uplifted not only me but our whole group. Samwise Gamgee did this too in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when the quest was at its lowest point yet for him and Frodo.
In this new video from Geeky Stoics on YouTube, will break it down for us. Enjoy!
Geeky Stoics was on the road this week in D.C. and Atlanta. More video and cool photos from the journey, coming soon.




