We keep score with the wrong numbers.
Wealth. Status. Health.
The metrics everyone watches.
We tally them carefully.
Celebrate the wins. Mourn the losses.
Build entire identities around the count.
But Epictetus put all of it in the middle column.
Neither good nor bad. Just indifferent.
Not worthless.
Just not the measure of you.
The only real currency is character.
The only meaningful gains are virtue.
Everything else is just weather.
Points fade. Who you became doesn't.
