TRY THE OTHER HANDLE

"Every event has two handles one by which it can be carried, and one by which it can't.

If your brother does you wrong, don't grab it by his wronging, because this is the handle incapable of lifting it. Instead, use the other that he is your brother, that you were raised together, and then you will have hold of the handle that carries."

The famous journalist William Seabrook suffered from such debilitating alcoholism that committed himself to an insane asylum, which was then the only place to get treatment for addiction. In his memoir, Asylum, he tells the story of the struggle to turn his life around inside the facility.

At first, he stuck to his addict way of thinking-and as a result, he was an outsider, constantly getting in trouble and rebelling against the staff. He made almost no progress and was on the verge of being asked to leave.

Then one day this very quote from Epictetus-about everything having two handles occurred to him. "I took hold now by the other handle," he related later, "and carried on." He actually began to have a good time there. He focused on his recovery with real enthusiasm. "I suddenly found it wonderful, strange, and beautiful, to be sober.... It was as if a veil, or scum, or film had been stripped from all things visual…