The Philosophy of Bob Ross Final Draft

Stoicism is a philosophy that is designed to maximize the amount of positivity in our lives while also decreasing the amount of negativity as well. At its basics, the philosophy says that we should not worry about the things that we cannot control but instead, we should worry about the things that we can control such as our happiness and perceptions on life. Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor and studier of Stoic ideology, once said “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” I’m sure that we know many people like this that have the sort of “go with the flow” mentality. To me, Stoic ideology is best described through the life, paintings and quotes of Bob Ross. Though he may not be a philosopher, many of Bob Ross’s actions throughout the decades have mimicked that of Stoic ideology. Through his paintings, quotes and even life before painting, Ross demonstrates stoicism in its purest form and encourages others to do the same.

The Early Life of Ross

Bob Ross was born in Dayton Beach, Florida on October 29^th, 1942. At the age of 18, Ross joined the Air Force and was stationed at the Eielson Air Force Base around the area of Fairbanks, Alaska. During the time there, he was hired as a medical records technician and eventually grew to the rank of Master Sargent. However, Ross hated the position, saying, "I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way anymore."  Ross decided that once he got out of the military, he would take up a career in painting, inspired by the first snow and mountains he saw in Alaska. Through this moment, we see that Bob Ross had control on what he wanted his life to be like or, in other words, what he would do to live a better life. He chose to get out of the military and pursue a career in something that made him happy; he didn’t want to have a career in something that paid well but made him miserable. Ross has even gone on record saying that painting helped him get through the military because it allowed him to do something that he had control over.

“Everybody needs a Friend”: Methods of Painting

The Joys of Painting, his painting television show, allowed Bob Ross to not only carry out his dream career, but also allowed him to share his painting techniques and philosophy with the world. When he finishes the background, he will often put things in front of it such as trees, bushes or cabins. Although, he occasionally will not describe his paintings as paintings; he will often call them “worlds”. I believe this is because he is creating something that he has complete control over, from where trees and bushes go to how many of them there are. He controls his feelings too and puts them into his paintings. For example, when adding another tree next to a tree, he will often say that “Even trees need friends sometimes” which shows that he is using his emotions to control how he views adding things to the canvas. He could have just said, “If you need another tree, just make another one.” Instead, he encourages people to create their own worlds through painting. Almost all of his quotes point toward a Stoic ideology such as:

However, one of the most Stoic ideological quotes that he had was one of his most famous:

This phrase not only applies to Ross’s paintings, but also to the viewer’s life. We have to remember that, at its core, the Joys of Painting is a learning program, but people don’t have to just take away painting techniques. In this quote, Ross is saying that he chooses to view things that are done wrongly as things that can still add to the overall picture and can be improved upon later. In life, we all make mistakes and we can choose whether or not we let it get to us as a mistake or if we choose to view it as something that allows us to see that we are fallible as humans and we can improve our conditions later on. Ross also enjoyed taking care of small animals like squirrels and racoons. He chose to be a driving force in that animal’s life so that it can learn to survive and it’s something that will help that animal in the long run.

How Bob Ross relates back to Stoicism

Bob Ross has never defined himself as a philosopher, but let's say for a moments that he was. Would he have seen all of his mistakes as happy accidents? Well, in order to understand this, we have to understand that Bob Ross wouldn't have kept the ideology he had throughout his entire life. In the quote that Bob had about the military, he said that, "if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way anymore." What Ross is saying here is that if he ever got out of the military world, a world in which he had no control over, he would change his perspective to that of a world where he had control over what made him happy. Now, let's say that, through some circumstances, he didn’t get out of the military. Would he view that as a happy accident? If he viewed it through the eyes of a Stoic, where you see obstacles as methods of improvement, I think he would have seen that as a happy accident since it is no longer in his control.

Another point to mention is that when he was talking about the being in an imaginative world that he has control of, he isn’t saying that a world out of his control is a bad thing. While in the military for 20 years of his life, he would have been constantly pressured to be a person that he was not. While he may resent that world of having no control, it doesn’t mean that he completely closed himself off from it. In the video below called “A word from Bob Ross” at the 1:17 mark, Ross talks about how he is only teaching you techniques and whatever you do is up to you. He has no control over what other people have the ability to create, he only gives them the tools to do so, which sounds like a Stoic’s beliefs. He has no control over what you make, but he has control over teaching you how to make it and providing you with the techniques and tools.

In conclusion, while Bob Ross didn’t claim to be a big philosopher, he had a lot of incite on life and how to live it to its fullest potential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIbR5TAz2xQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fad9GWE2_DY

Questions:

Where was Bob Ross born?

What is one thing that Bob Ross would put into his paintings as he added things?

Discussion Question

Do you agree with this philosophy and how do you think it would influence your life?

Comments:

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Citations: Military.com. (n.d.). Famous Veteran: Bob Ross. Retrieved from https://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veteran-bob-ross.html.

Stockton, R. (2018, July 3). Behind The Happy Little Trees: The Surprising Backstory Of Bob Ross. Retrieved from https://allthatsinteresting.com/bob-ross-biography.