The sun is currently in a phase of the year where it can reach temperatures that torment the human body, which struggles under unbearable heat. The hot season, whose intensity is further amplified by the torrid influence of El Niño, governs our daily lives: temperatures approaching, touching, or even exceeding thirty degrees force us to seek shade to mitigate the burning bite, though it cannot be fully annihilated. These hot days are further intensified by other offensive forces, such as power outages, which see their impact multiplied. A suffocating situation that requires a certain capacity for adaptation.
It is during these days when the thermometer climbs that those who have embraced Stoic philosophy can test themselves. As a reminder, this school advocated for a strength of character capable of distinguishing between what depends on us and what escapes our control. What currently escapes our control is the intensity of the hours, which suffer from the fever nature inflicts upon them. However, the posture and attitude we adopt to live through it remain subject to our decision: we can choose to suffer it passively, but we also possess the capacity to better navigate this fiery path.
Painters like Claude Monet found in the various light variations produced by this sun a spectacle to immortalize. They were able to find in these landscapes, illuminated by summer or spring heat, frames to contemplate with a certain wonder. This is another possible angle to adopt to better face the ambient embers. While we cannot circumvent natural laws, nature has, until proven otherwise, provided us with the faculty to act upon our perception of things. Thus, the ordeal does not seem insurmountable. And it is probably not Epictetus, the philosopher who did the most to transmit Stoic doctrine to posterity, who would contradict us.
But how can we apply these lessons when this heat combines with other ills such as shortages and deficiencies? Can we ask the miners in the novel Germinal (E. Zola, 1885) to simply endure the infernal conditions of the earth’s depths? We can learn to better experience extreme climatic conditions while not giving up on acting upon what depends on us: the human causes that have stimulated global warming.
Captured & Published at: 2026-10-26 05:39:09 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://www.lexpress.mg/2026/10/sagesse-brulante.html