Sick

I've been sick with a cold these past few days. While at the worst of the cold, I wondered if I could really be "sick, and happy" as Epictetus put it. I thought about my happiness, and even though I was sick, I realized that I wasn't unhappy. I wasn't stressed. I was just unwell, and had to spend lots of time in my bed. I did feel bad, and it wasn't purely a physical ailment. Feeling so crappy, I wasn't able to concentrate, and couldn't really do much work. But, I still wasn't unhappy. In fact, there were a few things that happened during my sickness to make me pretty happy, at least briefly.

The last time I had a cold was just a few months ago, and I speculated that I couldn't be happy while being sick. I thought that to be sick was to be miserable. Now I realize that this is true, but it's not the whole story, since I conflated the sensations of my body and mind with my happiness. The sickness only makes you feel miserable, but happiness is not directly related to just how well you feel. These are almost different dimensions of feeling, except they are only partially independent.

The Stoics seem to be right in that you can be sick and happy at the same time, and I'm happier realizing that my happiness is not subordinate to my health.