It is a given that an important part of being an Epicurean is consideration for others, imagination and empathy.
So may I risk boring readers with my current struggle? I bet you can quite easily guess that it involves a computer! Yes, software degrades (why? by now they should have the technology to make it reliable). In my case Outlook Express keeps freezing, invariably after some well thought-out, sparkling prose. You then lose everything you’ve done. Toshiba, who supplied the laptop with software already installed, tells me that there is nothing you can do about it except to back up everything and the wipe the computer completely, re-installing the original configuration. Incredible!
This has happened before. By the time I had finished it took me all of a precious day. If you are abroad it is not practical.  Why is it that computer companies have so little empathy with their customers? Could it be that it has something to do with loner nerds who prefer machines to people? Certainly they succeed in making everything difficult and time-consuming. Time is the one thing we have so little of.
Epicurus might have lived in disagreeable times politically, but he knew something when he chose to be born in Ancient Greece.
Modern technology is an exciting frustration Epicurus never had to experience. Its advantages are nearly matched by the stress it can cause, so you have the sympathy of your bloggers.
Neither did Epicurus have the worry of a pending world economic melt down which is prophesied by the pundits. The problems in the sub-prime lending market in America, which spread to the UK has now hit Japan.
Apparently in the past seven days the famous Origami Bank has folded; The Sumo Bank has gone belly up, and the Bonsai Bank has introduced plans to cut some of its branches. Yesterday it was announced that the Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song. Today shares in the Kamikaze bank were suspended after they nose dived, and 500 staff at the Karate Bank got the chop.
Analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that customers may get a raw deal….. and so it goes on.