NEXT WEEK, Ryan Holiday is taking the stage in Seattle, WA at Town Hall Seattle on December 3rd!
Join us for Daily Stoic LIVE—an evening of timeless wisdom about applying the Stoic Virtues to modern life and modern problems. It will be one of the first times Ryan talks publicly about his newest book and instant New York Times Bestseller, Wisdom Takes Work.
The ancient world was very different from ours, obviously. They had different technology. They had different customs, different gods, different lifespans. And yet, they were also tantalizingly similar to us … just as the people in the distant past must have seemed tantalizingly similar to them.
In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius observes that even in the bygone days of Vespasian or Trajan, people did the exact same things they were doing in his time: "marrying, raising children, getting sick, dying, waging war, throwing parties, doing business, farming, flattering, boasting, distrusting, plotting, hoping others will die, complaining about their own lives, falling in love, putting away money, seeking high office and power."
What's remarkable is how people are doing the exact same thing in the "modern" world, too. We can add many things to Marcus's list—things you did today, people did a thousand years ago, Marcus Aurelius did two thousand years ago, others did even five thousand years ago. They decided to take the scenic route, they talked baby talk to their dog, they arrived late (anxiously), they stayed up late (reading or talking), they were short with their children, they gossiped about a mutual friend. They fretted about their parents. They got caught up in a project and forgot to eat lunch. They caught a vain look in the mirror. They pinched fat on their belly. They got in an argument. They got a song stuck in their head.
This is what we do. This is what it is to be a human. Some of it good, some of it better to resist. But it's the rhythm of life, the bleeding of eras one into the other. No change, just repetition, just foolishness and greatness all side by side.
So the next time you feel exasperated, annoyed, joyful, or curious, remember: countless generations before you felt exactly the same way. We are all participants in this ancient, eternal human dance—different eras, same steps.
P.S Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations nearly 2,000 years ago, yet his observations read like they were written for your life today. Revisit wisdom that endures over and over again with our exclusive Leatherbound Edition of Meditations—crafted to last, made only at Daily Stoic. Get yours today.
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