Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes local guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.
David Magallanes
By David Magallanes • Guest contributor
Last week, one of my sisters sent me an email that included a quote oozing with wisdom. It was attributed to a person with the name “Seneca.” I knew I’d seen the name before, but I couldn’t quite place it. Maybe it was the name of a Native American, I thought. Native American leaders had perspectives very different from that of white American settlers. Their sophisticated understanding of nature and humankind, forged in eons of astute observations, has reverberated through the centuries.
But as it turns out, Seneca was not a Native American. He was an orator and philosopher who lived during the “Pax Romana,” a period marked by relative stability and prosperity in the Roman Empire. I’m going to call him one of the original Latino philosophers. I dub him “Latino” because, after all, he wrote in Latin. Also, just like many of the ancestors of modern Mexican Americans, he was born in what is now Spain, though at the time it was known as Hispania, a Roman territory, which we now recognize as the Iberian Peninsula. Subsequently, he was raised in Rome during the time that Jesus Christ was alive, sowing the seeds of the modern Christian era in the Middle East.
Seneca’s connection with Christianity, however, is tangential and unfortunate. He was a tutor and advisor for the infamous Roman emperor Nero, who took to persecuting Christians and Jews in the latter part of his reign, though not because of any influence from Seneca.
Seneca’s philosophy was based on the teachings of Stoicism, which could be summarized as the belief that everything is rooted in nature. The quote attributed to Seneca that my sister sent me was, “Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.”
Let’s think about this. What was Seneca, this Latino philosopher, trying to teach us with these words? I’m going to speculate that the message for us here is that fate “leads” us by presenting unexpected opportunities and granting us a unique blend of gifts. If we ignore those opportunities and make no use of our gifts, then life is going to be difficult.
— David Magallanes is a retired college math educator.
Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to frank@amigos805.com
***
El Filósofo Latino
Por David Magallanes • Columnista invitado
La semana pasada, una de mis hermanas me envió un correo electrónico que incluía una cita rebosante de sabiduría. Fue atribuida a una persona conocido como “Séneca”. Yo sabía que había visto el nombre antes, pero no pude ubicarlo. Tal vez era el nombre de un nativo americano, pensé. Los líderes nativos americanos tenían perspectivas muy diferentes a las de los colonos estadounidenses blancos. Su sofisticada comprensión de la naturaleza y la humanidad, forjada en siglos de astutas observaciones, ha reverberado a través de los siglos.
Pero resulta que Séneca no era un nativo americano. Fue un orador y filósofo que vivió durante la “Pax Romana”, un período marcado por la relativa estabilidad y prosperidad en el Imperio Romano. Voy a denominarlo uno de los filósofos latinos originales. Lo llamo “latino” porque, al fin y al cabo, escribió en el idioma latín. Además, al igual que muchos de los antepasados ??de los mexicoamericanos modernos, nació en lo que ahora es España, aunque en ese momento era conocido como Hispania, un territorio romano, que ahora reconocemos como la Península Ibérica. Posteriormente, fue criado en Roma durante el tiempo en que Jesucristo estaba vivo, sembrando las semillas de la era cristiana moderna en el Medio Oriente.
Sin embargo, la conexión entre Séneca y el cristianismo es tangencial y desafortunada. Fue tutor y asesor del infame emperador romano Nerón, quien se dedicó a perseguir a cristianos y judíos en la última parte de su reinado, aunque no debido a ninguna influencia de Séneca.
La filosofía de Séneca se basó en las enseñanzas del estoicismo, que podría resumirse como la creencia de que todo está arraigado en la naturaleza. La cita atribuida a Séneca que me envió mi hermana fue: “El destino conduce a los dispuestos y arrastra a los reacios”.
Meditemos sobre esto. ¿Qué intentaba enseñarnos Séneca, este filósofo latino, con estas palabras? Voy a especular que el mensaje para nosotros es que el destino nos “conduce” al presentar oportunidades inesperadas y otorgándonos una combinación única de regalos. Si ignoramos esas oportunidades y si no nos aprovechamos de nuestros dones, entonces la vida será difícil.
– – David Magallanes es un profesor de matemáticas jubilado.
Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to frank@amigos805.com