*** Conform Your Wishes to Reality ~Epictetus 讓你的願望符合現實 —艾匹克提塔斯 For good or for ill, life and nature are governed by laws that we can’t change. The quicker we accept this, the more tranquil we can be. You would be foolish to wish that your children or your spouse would live forever. They are mortal, just as you are, and the law of mortality is completely out of your hands. 不管是好是壞，統治生命和自然的法則都不是我們能改變的。我們越快接受這個便越能夠平靜。希望你的孩子或配偶永遠不死是非常愚蠢的，他們是會死的，就像你一樣，死亡的法則完全在你的掌控之外。 Similarly, it is foolish to wish that an employee, relative, or friend be without fault. This is wishing to control things that you can’t truly control. 同樣地，希望一個不會犯錯的雇員、親戚或朋友也是愚蠢的。這就是希望去控制你真正無法控制的事物。 It is within our control not to be disappointed by our desires if we deal with them according to facts rather than by being swept away by them. 如果我們依據事實來處理欲望而不是被它擺弄，就不會因而失望，這是在我們的控制範圍之內。 We are ultimately controlled by that which bestows what we seek or removes what we don’t want. If it is freedom you seek, then wish nothing and shun nothing that depends on others, or you will always be a helpless slave. 我們終究是為賜予我們所求或去除我們所不想要的力量所掌控。如果你找的是自由，就不要渴望也不要規避任何仰賴別人的事物，否則你永遠都會是一個無助的奴隸。 Understand what freedom really is and how it is achieved. Freedom isn’t the right or ability to do whatever you please. Freedom comes from understanding the limits of our own power and the nature limits set in place by divine providence. By accepting life’s limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, we become free. If, on the other hand, we succumb to our passing desires for things that aren’t in our control, freedom is lost. 要了解自由的真意以及如何達成它。自由並不是隨你高興要做什麽就做什麽。自由來自了解自己能力的極限以及了解神聖天意所設下的自然限制。透過接受生命的限制與必然性且因此調適自己而非抗拒它們，我們變得自由。從另一方面來說，如果我們屈服於偶發的欲望而去追求那些我們控制範圍之外的事物，自由便失去了。 新的一年，願我的朋友們自由。 新年快樂。