Indeed, how could exile be an obstacle to a person’s own cultivation, or to attaining virtue when no one has ever been cut off from learning or practicing what is needed by exile?
—Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 9.37.30-31, 9.39.1
Late in his life, after a surgery, Theodore Roosevelt was told he might be confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his days. With his trademark ebullience, he responded, “All right! I can work that way too!”
This is how we can respond to even the most disabling turns of fate—by working within whatever room is left. Nothing can prevent us from learning. In fact, difficult situations are often opportunities for their own kinds of learning, even if they’re not the kinds of learning we’d have preferred.
Musonius Rufus, for his part, was exiled three times (twice by Nero and once by Vespasian), but being forcibly expelled from his life and his home didn’t impinge on his study of philosophy. In his way, he responded by saying “All right! I can work that way too.” And he did, managing to squeeze in some time between exiles with a student named Epictetus and thus helping to bring Stoicism to the world.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman