But still, it is hard to live out important life lessons if you cannot remember them! In those same early centuries before and after Christ, Greeks like Simonides and Romans like Cicero championed a specialized "art of memory." Early Church Fathers such as Augustine and Jerome championed this also, as did, centuries later, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.
The unique virtue of Kevin Vost's book is its wedding of the ancient art of memory to the timeless art of living. In his Handbook, Epictetus exhorts us to "remember" his lessons a full dozen times, and in his own book Vost shows us how to do just this, thereby opening our eyes to unrecognized powers of imagination and memory, and to unrecognized capacities for controlling thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Even so, the Stoics would not mind at all if you found this exercise of imagination and intellect a rather fun thing to do. Enjoy!
KEVIN VOST holds a Doctor of Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) degree from Adler University in Chicago and has taught at schools including the University of Illinois at Springfield and Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of over twenty books, including The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living and Memorize the Faith! (And Most Anything Else) Using the Methods of the Great Catholic Medieval Memory Masters.