Meditation IX.17 - Say Yes, to Life - Translated by George Long and rewritten by Russell McNeil
For the stone which has been thrown up it is no evil to come down, nor indeed any good to have been carried up.1
Explanation
(1) This meditation is about the vagaries of life over which we have little control. Yet many of us worship them still. We move inexorably from the bloom of youth to the dissolution of age. We watch as our fortunes disappear, our friends abandon us, our loves dissolve, our reputations are lost, our flames dim. Fame and fortune are capricious. Real friends are rare. Youth is brief. Life is short. But these are the ways of the world. The Stoic remains ever indifferent to each of these things. They are superficial measures of success. We can only be happy if we can honestly proclaim at the end of our days that in spite of these pitfalls, we have always, and unreservedly been able to say, yes - to life. Practice this - every day of your life.
Russell McNeil, PhD, is the author of The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Selections Annotated and Explained by Skylight Paths Publishing. The unpublished selections presented in this Blog are provided as supplemental material to the published selections which are annotated and explained in the book. The published selections are referenced in this Blog by page number and section.
No comments:
Post a Comment