Premeditatio Malorum: Plan for the Worst

On December 21 we took Harry, our beloved 10-year old cat to the Small Animal Clinic because he had stopped eating and had become apathetic.

He was put on intraveneous feeding and given antibiotics and other drugs. A blood test showed poor but still acceptable results. This treatment continued for several days without any signs of improvement.

Another blood test and a USG several days later showed a much worse condition that merited euthanasia. His abdomen had become swollen with fluids, and at home going a few feet became a marathon for him.

The vet said that he was suffering and gave us painkillers to administer to him. We brought him back to the clinic on January 3rd, where he was put to sleep at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

This all happened so fast that we were stunned and devastated. Harry had contracted FIV (feline immunodeficiency peritonitis), an incurable disease that is 100-percent fatal.

Harry was bonded with wife and not with me, but she took the loss more lightly than I did. That is probably due to the fact that people of an advanced age are psychologically more vulnerable.

Never before had I practiced the Stoic technique of premeditatio malorum or plan for the worst (literally premeditation of evils). . Had I been familiar with this technique I might have spared myself a lot of heartache.

As practiced in the businessworld, the technique may be called a premortem. A business team gets together before a project is launched and brainstorms all of the things that could gowrong.

Nothing happens to the wise man against his expectation, nor do all things turn out for him as he wished but as he reckoned, Seneca wrote to a friend,.

By doing this exercise, Seneca was always prepared for disruption and always working that disruption into his plans. He was fitted for defeat or victory. And let’s be honest, a pleasant surprise is a lot better than an unpleasant one

We often learn the hard way that our world is ruled by external factors. We don’t always get what is rightfully ours, even if we’ve earned it. Not everything is as clean and straightforward as the games they play in business school. Psychologically, we must prepare ourselves for this to happen.

If it comes as a constant surprise each and every time something unexpected occurs, you’re not only going to be miserable whenever you attempt something big, you’re going to have a much harder time accepting it and moving on to attempts two, three, and four. The only guarantee, ever, is that things could go wrong. The only thing we can use to mitigate this is anticipation, because the only variable we control completely is ourselves.

With anticipation, we have time to raise defenses, or even avoid them entirely. We’re ready to be driven off course because we’ve plotted a way back. We can resist going to pieces if things didn’t go as planned. With anticipation, we can endure.

The Stoics divide the world into things that are within ouir power and those which are not wthin our power. Not within our power are such things as wealth, reputation, our health and the health and welfare of our near and dear ones. Within our power is our attitude towards these external things.

One could also call these things those that belong to God and those that belong to us. For example,our famil, friends, and pets belong to God, who has only lent them to us for a certain time.

Every day we should hug and kiss our wife, children and pets as though taking leave of them for the last time. When the new day dawns and they are still with us, we should offer a prayer to God for granting us another day Speny\t with ourwife, children or cat or dog.

If God takes one of these beings away from us, should we be angry? Should we grieve?

To be angry would show ingratitude to God for allowing us to spend he time that we did with one of his creatures. To grieve seems natural, but in fact

When we are not manifesting sorrow for a family member or pet, who supposedly has gone to a better world to prepare a place for us. Grief is an outward manifestation of petulance and lack of faith.

Lord, Harry was too young to die. We were expecting to spend another five or ten years with him. I exclaimed.

In my heart of hearts, I heard God’a answerr:

Wretch, God thundered, you failed to appreciate the time that I gave you with my creature. You wasted most of it and now you wail that you did not have more!

Practice the technique of premeditatio malorum, and you will never be taken by surprise again. Harry is with me and is well. He is preparing a place for you in my Kingdom.If you wish for something every day strongly enough I might make it come true.