The Stoic Archer

Make the best use of what is in our power, and take the rest as it happens.
- Epictetus

• While Reading the book on Stoicism, I came across this story. It changed the way I look at problems, situations, life!

Once in Switzerland, a tyrannic governor decided to raised a pole in the center of the street, put his hat at the top and demanded everyone to bow in respect every time they pass by.
When William Tell, our hero, passed by along with his son, they forgot to bow their heads, or ignored it. They were taken to the governor. The governor gave William two choices:

1. Accept Death and get Executed

2. Shoot an apple off his son’s head with an crossbow.

Think about this situation for a second. You have certain death on one hand, and on the other you could live but with the guilt of killing your own child. What a cruel fate to have.
Luckily, for William, he had good crossbow abilities. He aimed for the apple, took one deep breath, and released the arrow. He saw it fly through the air and struck the apple, saving them both.

Later, after being freed. William was arrested for admitting that he had kept 2 arrows with him, one extra. If his son had died, he would have killed the governor.
This was simply because William knew that he had control over the situation only till he released the arrow, once he had taken his shot there would be a thousand things that could go wrong. He knew he shouldn’t blame himself for it, but rather prepare himself for what to do next. And that is exactly what William Will did.

• This story is not about

  • William being the hero and saving the day.

  • The tyranny of the Governor.

  • The lucky boy who survived.

• The story is about acceptance. Acceptance of what you can and what you cannot control. Focusing on what you can control and preparing for what to do when things don’t work for you.

• This story has one main relevance with our day to day lives. We all are like William here, we all go through problems, but when something goes wrong is where we differ. We stop functioning. We step aside and see the negative sides of situations, we let the inner voices win.

Events can give us physical pain but Suffering only comes from resisting what is, from fighting with reality.
- Dan Millman

• The stoics want us to cultivate acceptance to whatever happens because most events happen without us having a say in the matter.

• There are many things in our lives we can’t control. Either we accept the situation and try to make the best with it, or we fight it like a stubborn baby and end up crying and feeling miserable. It’s our choice.

This story has helped me through countless events in life, and I hope it does the same for you too!

I had read this book a couple years back, as a kid it took me quite some time to understand the following quote and the depth of this. So give the following quote by Epictetus time; to sink in, to grow within you and see the magic these words will do to you!

Seek not for events to happen as you wish but rather wish for events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly.
~ Epictetus

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This is Pratyay Dhond at your service.
Give me all the critiques you can think of! Don't hold anything back. After all,

“The dread of criticism is the death of genius.” —William Gilmore Simms’