No part of life, whether in public or in private affairs, abroad or at home, in your personal conduct or your social relations, can be free from the claims of duty.
It is in the observance of duty that lies all the honour of life. In its neglect, all of the shame.
Cicero, On Duties
Duties has always been an important value to me. Yet, I haven’t put a lot of thought as to why exactly that is. Duty is just what you do. That made sense to me. Be kind to your family and friends. Help out in your community. Duty. Done.
It might sound strange then to learn that I had never read On Duties. Well, now is the time to correct that.
I really enjoyed the text. My highlighter was used a lot, and I have notes written down most of the margins.
After some reflection, I put together a presentation to share at our January meetup for the Brisbane Stoics group.
We had a lot of interesting discussions through the workshop, with lots of unique experiences and perspectives shared.
It was also a great opportunity for learning and growth. I’m still relatively new to presentation or leading workshops focused on philosophy. Overall, I’’m really happy with how the morning went.
My key lessons and takeaways:
- Have a list of discussion questions ready for the conclusion of the session to help provide a bit more structure and clarity
- Have more blank sheets of paper and pens ready – we had a lot of extra people turn up – the opening activity was to draw duties
- Have some handouts printed with key themes – this may help the participants with not having to record as much – they can then write personal reflections on the handout
- Continue to enjoy the process
- Teaching and sharing is a great way to solidify your own understanding
- Continue to share your own interpretations and perspectives – we all have unique thoughts and ways of expressing information
- A timeline of events helps to provide context. Cicero lived in a really interesting period of the Roman Empire and key events took part around that time – it helps to provide further context around On Duties, and how one can then be called to additional duties and responsibilities because Fate has placed her or him in a certain time period
- Duties can be defined in so many different ways – based on where we are in our own lives – and the various roles that we play. As individuals, the duties that we undertake will therefore be different. IT’s great to explore that topic further and understand how that looks for other people
