Musical Lessons in Stoicism: "Weather with You" by Crowded House
I’m always on the lookout for philosophically rich songs that can be used as quick lessons in philosophical concepts. I was in the car the other day and the song “Weather with You” by Crowded House (from their album Woodface) came on the radio.
"Weather with You" by Crowded House
Walking 'round the room singing Stormy Weather
At Fifty Seven Mount Pleasant Street
Well it's the same room, but everything's different
You can fight the sleep, but not the dreamThings ain't cookin' in my kitchen
Strange affliction wash over me
Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire
Couldn't conquer the blue skyWell, there's a small boat made of china
It's going nowhere on the mantlepiece
Well, do I lie like a loungeroom lizard
Or do I sing like a bird released?Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather, the weather with youEverywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather, take the weather, the weather with youEverywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
Everywhere you go, always take the weather, take the weather, the weather with you(Written by Neil Finn and Tim Finn)
“Everywhere You Go, Always Take the Weather with You”
While listening to the song, the chorus line jumped out at me. (How could it not, with the line being so prominent and with it being repeated so many times? 😂)
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you.
The key notion behind this line, and perhaps behind the song “Weather with You” in general, is that we always take our own weather with us, that we ourselves are responsible for creating the environment around us—its energy, its emotional qualities, its positivity or negativity, and its happiness or misery.
Seneca on the Weather
The Ancient Roman stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger made a similar point in a letter to his friend Lucilius:
Are you surprised, as if it were a novelty, that after such long travel and so many changes of scene you have not been able to shake off the gloom and heaviness of your mind? You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate. Though you may cross vast spaces of sea, and though, as our Vergil remarks, “Lands and cities are left astern,” your faults will follow you whithersoever you travel. (Seneca, Letters from a Stoic, Letter 28)
Whether you’re alone in a room like the protagonist of “Weather with You,” or whether you are on an adventure in a faraway land, Seneca seems to be warning us against the danger of our carrying our misery with us wherever we go. It’s interesting that Seneca also uses a weather metaphor—”climate,” as Seneca calls it—to describe the emotional baggage that we carry with us, either across town or halfway across the globe. As Seneca puts it, a change of scene or a change of climate will never be enough to remedy the emotional maladies within us. The change must come from within, not from without.
Seneca goes on to tell us that remedying our inner troubles makes the whole world feel more like home, making us more content wherever we may be:
The person you are matters more than the place to which you go; for that reason we should not make the mind a bondsman to any one place. Live in this belief: "I am not born for any one corner of the universe; this whole world is my country." If you saw this fact clearly, you would not be surprised at getting no benefit from the fresh scenes to which you roam each time through weariness of the old scenes. For the first would have pleased you in each case, had you believed it wholly yours. As it is, however, you are not journeying; you are drifting and being driven, only exchanging one place for another, although that which you seek, – to live well, – is found everywhere. (Seneca, Letters from a Stoic, Letter 28)
Marcus Aurelius on the Weather
Fellow Roman Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius also ferreted to weather, both literally and metaphorically, in several places within his Meditations. For example:
“Earth loves the rain;” “and the majestic Ether loves.” The Universe loves to bring about whatever is coming to be. I then will say to the Universe: “What thou lovest I love.” Is it not a common saying that, “so-and-so loves to happen?” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book X, No. 21)
Marcus Aurelius makes a similar point, that we should love and embrace whatever comes to pass, for better or for worse, and not let our inner contentment be dictated by external factors. As he says elsewhere in his Meditations, we have the ability to control and regulate our inner mental and emotional states:
The character of your most frequent impressions will be the character of your mind. The soul takes colour from its impressions, therefore steep it in such thoughts as these:—Wherever a man can live, he can live well. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book V, No. 16)
So, in the spirit of Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and their spirit brethren in the band Crowded House, be wary of the ways in which you are creating your own mental and emotional turmoil, whether out of fear or out of unchecked negativity. Aim instead to live in inner harmony with nature, with the cosmos, and most especially with yourself. Aim also to regain control over your mind, your emotions, and your own reactions that you so frequently lament for their chaotic nature. You will not find this peace in a change of weather, a change of climate, a change of workplace, on a vacation, or in any new land whether near or far. True mental and emotional peace comes only from within yourself. The weather is within you.
For Further Reading:
Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Where to Find “Weather with You” by Crowded House:
