Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #36 – The Krishna Challenge

A friend recently shared with me an excerpt from a book he was reading on one of his favorite subjects: the realizations of the Greek Stoics. It really struck a chord. “Listen, as the saying goes, it’s crisis time: make a last desperate effort to gain freedom and tranquility — to be a Stoic. Lift up your head, like a person finally released from slavery. Dare to face God and say, ‘From now on, use me as you like. I am of one mind with you, I am your peer.’ Whatever you decide, I will not shrink from it. You may put me where you like, in any role regardless: officer or citizen, rich man or pauper, here or overseas. They are all just so many opportunities to justify your ways to man, by showing just how little circumstances amount to.” (Epictetus, Discourses and Selected Writings, translated by Robert Dobbin, p. 116) Could I throw my hands in the air, “dare to face God,” and say, as the best of the Stoics do, “From now on, use me as you like”? It is one thing to say this when life…