Somewhere along the way, I finished reading Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. It took me a few months because I mostly read a page or two at night before falling asleep.
Meditations ends with a whimper rather than a bang, which is why I did not feel compelled to say anything about it the day I finished reading it.
He says, “So make your exit with grace–the same grace shown to you.”
He shares many of his thoughts about dying. He says, “Bear in mind that everything that exists is already fraying at the edges, and in transition, subject to fragmentation and to rot.”
While the musings of an old man are interesting, they are more reflective than active. I say “old man.”
According to Wikipedia, Marcus Aurelius died at the age of 58, about three years older than I am now. He wrote most of the entries during the last ten years of his life.
His perspective tends to be backward-looking. He talks about how a man should live his life, from the perspective of a man facing his own mortality. He says, “Before long, darkness. And whoever buries you mourned in their turn.”
Did he do enough in his life when he had the chance? Nobody does. He says, “And how trivial the things we want so passionately are.” He also says, “Stupidity is expecting figs in winter, or children in old age.”
I’m not sure what great revelations I was hoping to experience by reading Meditations. Many passages ring true, and some are more obvious than others. He says, “Have I done something for the common good? Then I share in the benefits.”
He sets high expectations for himself. He says, “When faced with people’s bad behavior, turn around and ask when you have acted like that.”
He is less of an explorer than me. He says, “Why all this guesswork? You can see what needs to be done. If you can see the road, follow it.”
Still, he believes in the angels of our better nature.
“Whereas humans were made to help others. And when we do help others–or help them to do something–we’re doing what we were designed for. We perform our function”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
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