Figs thrive in areas with long, hot summers.
— The Old Farmer's Almanac
Five hundred thousand Americans have died from Covid-19, a number unimaginable a year ago.
Eighty-one percent of the deaths so far have been among adults 65 and over.
And it continues to favor the old.
Compared to a child, the risk of death for a 65-year-old is 1100X; for a 75-year-old, 2800X; for an 85-year-old, 7900X, according to the CDC.
So what are you going to do, old bean?
My advice is to take all the routine precautions, but take them resignedly.
Mask up and let go.
Epictetus warned against attachments—including those to family, friends, and one's own life, as well.
Only attach to a thing as if it were "brittle as glass or earthenware; that when it happens to be broken, you may not lose your self-command," he said.
"Remind yourself that you love what is mortal; that you love what is not your own. It is allowed you for the present, not irrevocably, nor forever; but as a fig in the appointed season. If you long for these in winter, you are foolish.
"So, if you long for your son, or your friend, when you cannot have him, remember that you are wishing for figs in winter. For as winter is to a fig, so is every accident in the universe to those things with which it interferes."
Epictetus urged stoicism even in the face of death.
"A wise and good man, mindful who he is and whence he came, and by whom he was produced, is attentive only how he may fill his post regularly and dutifully before God.
"'Do you wish me still to live? Let me live free and noble, as you desire; for you have made me incapable of restraint in what is my own.
"'But have you no further use for me? Farewell! I have stayed thus long through you alone, and no other; and now I depart in obedience to you.'"
