The Things That Do Attain

Ah, the things that do attain.

Late one night, I shared a bottle of Żubrówka with a dear friend. 

We talked about mat­ters of great import­ance; life, mean­ing, and hap­pi­ness — as one might do while get­ting exper­i­ment­ally intox­ic­ated after a hard day’s work in the PR industry. 

The next day, my friend sent me this email: 

“My head hurts, but our con­ver­sa­tion yes­ter­day reminded me of this poem of Henry Howard,” he wrote. “I think you might like it.”

And like it, I did.

It became my favour­ite poem:

“My friend, the things that do attain
The happy life be these, I find:
The riches left, not got with pain,
The fruit­ful ground; the quiet mind;

The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule nor gov­ernance;
Without dis­ease the healthy life;
The house­hold of con­tinu­ance;

The mean diet, no dainty fare;
True wis­dom joined with sim­ple­ness;
The night dis­charged of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppress;

The faith­ful wife, without debate;
Such sleeps as may beguile the night:
Content thy­self with thine estate,
Neither wish death, nor fear his might.”

— Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Such a sens­ible path to wander!

Happiness by way of the quiet mind, as it stands, might be the most ambi­tious of quests!

Simple, yet so elu­sive and chal­len­ging to attain.

The poem was par­tially used (and read very well) in this epis­ode of The Tudors:

PR Resource: The Stoic PR Professional

Stoic Philosophy for Public Relations

I’m inspired by Stoicism — and intrigued by the idea of trans­lat­ing clas­sic­al Stoic vir­tues (wis­dom, cour­age, justice, tem­per­ance) and apply­ing them to pub­lic relations:

The Wisdom Pitch

“A Stoic is someone who trans­forms fear into prudence, pain into trans­form­a­tion, mis­takes into ini­ti­ation, and desires into under­tak­ing.”
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Tell PR stor­ies of how organ­isa­tions can be wise and over­come obstacles that have stopped oth­ers in their tracks. Convey PR mes­sages on how to apply wis­dom, know­ledge, and experience.

The Courage Pitch

“We can­not choose our cir­cum­stances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.”
— Epictetus

Tell PR stor­ies of brands that nev­er back down in the face of hard­ships that would des­troy oth­er organ­isa­tions. Convey PR mes­sages of how an organ­isa­tion can be right­eous even when storms are raging.

The Justice Pitch

“Concentrate every minute on doing what’s in front of you with pre­cise and genu­ine ser­i­ous­ness, ten­derly, will­ingly, with justice.”
— Marcus Aurelius

Tell PR stor­ies of how organ­isa­tions relent­lessly can strive for hon­esty and trans­par­ency — even when uncom­fort­able. Convey PR mes­sages about how all brands, without excep­tion, can rid them­selves of dis­hon­esty and incompetence.

The Temperance Pitch

“It’s not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, who is poor.”
— Seneca

Tell PR stor­ies of organ­isa­tions that strive for high­er val­ues in a world where all oth­er organ­isa­tions suf­fer short­sighted­ness. Convey PR mes­sages of organ­isa­tions pre­pared to abstain from short-term gains to make the world bet­ter for all.

Learn more: Stoic Philosophy for PR Professionals