| It would be wonderful if people were admired for doing the right thing. If we respected people of character and honor and if we appreciated differences and uniqueness and people who march to their own beat. But, of course, we don't. At least usually not in their own lifetimes. Cato, it's worth remembering, was hated in his own time. Diogenes, we can't forget, was an exile. Socrates is beloved and celebrated now, but what did Athens think of all his questioning, his peculiarities? They sentenced him to death for it. Cato knew he was walking a lonely road. He prepared for it, practiced making himself indifferent to other people's opinions—famously walking barefoot and bare-headed, just to get used to drawing judgmental eyes. From Meditations, it's clear that Marcus Aurelius struggled with the fact that his job came with criticism and doubts and perhaps even angry mobs. Yet that's what he was using Meditations for—to steel himself against these jeers and attacks, reminding himself that what mattered is whether he thought something was right, whether he was being true to himself. We can't trouble ourselves with what other people say about us when we're away (as the song goes). We can't expect or even hope to be universally loved or understood. In fact, we should be prepared for the opposite, because no one who ever did anything new or difficult did it without criticism or doubters. We have to cultivate our own strong sense of values and virtue, we have to honor this sense and follow it. We have to be who we are, not who they want us to be. Whether the crowd appreciates us for this at the time or later is not our concern. |
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