The child was never ours, so when death comes we should be ready to let go and not want to hold onto something we never truly possessed in the first place. The thought of not being saddened by a child's death appears harsh, however many of us do the same thing when we say "it was meant to be" or "God wanted him back" as away of dealing with death. In a way, a passive approach toward harsh realities helps to ease the pain. It may be a little hard to think of ourselves doing this, but it is a common defense that many of us, including myself, use. To me, it seems rather ironic, though, that when a mother accepts her child's death because God wanted him back, she is a strong woman, but when a stoic accepts ones death as a fact of life beyond his control, he is passive and insensitive.
Another concept of stoicism that we don't tend to acknowledge, but perhaps should, is that material things are trivial. So much monetary value is place in many things that have considerably low actual value. We base a majority of our decisions on things that are material and most of the time unimportant. Taking such value in objects leads to greed, corruption, and in many ways, loss of one's self. The stoic would see through the temptations and "appearances" as Epictetus calls them, to what is truly important in life, like staying in accordance with nature. Furthermore, Epictetus in his 44th passage, explain that wealth or knowledge does not constitute superiority, even though by today's standards, it very well may. He emphasizes that it is not your possessions that make you who you are. He also goes on to say not to live your life in excess. In passage 40 he speaks of how it is degrading to the human character to live your life eating too much, sleeping too much, or working t!.
oo much. He suggests that instead we find a balance in our life and remain true to our "faculty of judgment," our soul or our values.