The episode's central idea: events that are neither good nor bad but baffling, 'not a hooray and not an oh no, just a what the f***'. Stoic equanimity handles joy and sorrow but not the 'why'. People tend to ignore enigmas, get paralyzed by them, or go on a lifelong crusade to solve them.
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If someone thinks they've got everything figured out, to my mind that's where they're going to stop. Their brain calcifies. It's way more fun to be sort of scratching your head sometimes, because it keeps your brain looking and listening.
- Equanimity can't answer an enigma
Stoicism, Kipling and the Gita teach you to meet joy and sorrow evenly, but an enigma is neither: it's a 'why', and it pushes you onto more treacherous philosophical paths.
An enigma is neither good nor bad, it's a why. It's not a hooray and it's not an oh no, it's just a what the f***.
- Three responses to mystery
Most people either push life's enigmas away to keep their day-to-day equilibrium, get paralyzed by them, or go on a lifelong crusade for the answer; choosing to live with mystery is a…