Attachments Are The Enemy

The Daily Stoic for November 23rd, “Attachments Are The Enemy”.

“In short, you must remember this—that if you hold anything dear outside of your own reasoned choice, you will have destroyed your capacity for choice.”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.4.23

As today’s daily stoic discusses, there are many different kinds of attachments: attachments to an image you have of a person, attachments to wealth and status, attachments to a certain place or time, attachments to a job or to a lifestyle….

Attachments Are The Enemy

When I was a child, we changed homes very frequently. By the time I was 13, I had undergo 13 moves (roughly one per year). Sometimes -but not always- I and my sister will change schools, and had to make new friends, and get used to a new place, new people, new environment.

Maybe that has made me quite detached from any specific place. I was born in Cartagena, Murcia, at the South of Spain. But I have little sense of belonging, or “roots”. 

Perhaps that’s why I find it so easy to change places, or make new friends, even if I know they are not going to last. When I was a child, I find it hard to make stable friendship relationships, but that also made me more independent and helped me grow early on.

I think we should be taught the same detachment to all things when we are kids. Not just from a place, but from our belongings, lifestyle, job, the people around us… After thinking about it, I believe it would be great if I was able to show the same lack of dependence of the place I live in to the rest of things in my life.

Conclusion

Today’s Daily Stoic, “Attachments Are The Enemy”, talks about attachment to things, and why it’s dangerous to depend on them.