Al dente, et tu brute, and the stoic Prince
The title is damn boring but these three concepts can change your life.
Let’s get married and cook pasta
A concept I recently learned and became a fan of but was following forever is a little kitchen-y: The Al dente concept.
You cook your pasta in such a way that it gets a little soft but when you bite it you still feel the texture.
The point is to not mush or melt the pasta too much. Who wants to eat that kind of pasta anyway?
And I think this concept is beautiful.
Any negative situation should make you humbler (soft) but not lose your soul (have texture). Be bold. Have an I don't care attitude.
But usually, in life, the opposite is seen more. And this happens due to expectations.
Someone once told me "You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me."
And even that line is the reflection of an expectation.
But expectations don'tave to hold you back. I have seen her become softer and stronger through every life's mess.
I'm happy to invite my friend (enemy) too
You either want to die chanting the name of God or asking God's pardon.
But what about chanting your friend's name ...for a bad reason?
"Et tu, Brute?”
It was the last words of Julius Caesar, which translates from Latin to: "You too, Brutus?"
The sentence implies exactly what it sounds like: sudden deep sorrow.
He was stabbed by his own best friend. What can be worse than that?
The whole sentence was: ‘Et Tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar.’ which could translate to either of two:
if my best friend thinks I should die, so will I
or I may as well die now as I have been betrayed by my own best friend
Even God will do your special effects when you are committed… and crazy
Never in 40 years of the Super Bowl had it rained.
But this was Prince's show.
It rained all the way till the day of the Super Bowl. The show was in Miami.
Prince met with the legendary producer Don Mischner 5 times to plan the show. (This dude produced the greats such as The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and other greats.)
On the main day, he worried Prince would not perform:
Don: "Prince, I want you to know it's raining."
Prince: "Yes. It's raining.”
Don: "Are you okay with that?"
Prince: "Can you make it rain harder?"
No rooftop to stop the stage from the slipper. On top of that, Prince's background twin dancers wore 8-inch heels. He used 4 electric guitars, which could be dead with water. Thousands of lights and cameras.
Yet he went on to give the most epic performance the decade has ever seen.
Artists usually promote their upcoming album during the Super Bowl halftime shows (a rest break in the NFL match). But Prince made a set list of music from other artists to promote, including Bob Dylan's music.
The 12 minutes that he was on stage performing in heavy downpour got everyone crazy with awe. They never saw this happening. Prince's last performance of his own “Purple Rain” was the most magical because of God's special effects: more heavy wind and more crazy rain.
The very act of making the obstacle his path is a reflection of Prince's stoic mindset.
I first learned this from Matt Schnuer on his Twitter thread and was blown away. Blown away more on Matt that he could link a completely irrelevant irony to a brilliant concept. I'm trying to do the same.
Stoics don’t stress about waiting for things to change but rather focus their energy on what they can control.
The most famous philosopher Mark Aurelius said:
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."
We grow not despite roadblocks but because of them.
Even the world can conspire against your success if you think it. And you can either say “Et tu, Rain?” and fall. Or you can go with what you can control and rise.
Every obstacle is an opportunity because it makes us gentler at the same time stronger than ever. Al dente.
Of course, it was crazy. By choosing to perform in the rain, you put a shattering one hundred thousand people at risk of fever or other illnesses. And what about the background dancers with eiffel-tower heels?
But great things require certain sacrifices with mutual consent.
It’s already a long post now. But if what you reply with is “Can you make it a little longer?”
Then that’s your stoicness in perfect check.