KEEP THE OLD WARM

“Be not unhappy, or discouraged, or dissatisfied, if you do not succeed in acting always by the right principles; but when you have failed, try again, and be content if most of your acts are consistent with man’s nature. Love that to which you return; do not return to philosophy as if she were a schoolmaster, but behave like those who have sore eyes and apply a bit of sponge or an egg, or like another who applies a plaster or a water lotion. For thus you will not fail to obey reason, and will find rest in it. And remember that philosophy requires only the things which your nature requires. But you would have something else which is not according to nature. You may object: “Why, what is more agreeable than this I am doing?” But is not this just how pleasure deceives us? And consider whether magnanimity, freedom, simplicity, equanimity, piety, are not more agreeable. And what is more agreeable than wisdom itself, when you think of the security and the happy course of all things which result from the faculty of wisdom and knowledge? – Marcus Aurelius Meditations V:9

If we are striving to be better, yet fail, why beat ourselves up? Let us return to the better paths we’ve set ourselves on. What would life be if we we’re always able to walk straight? Life wouldn’t be alive in such a world.

Let us return to the right paths, the hard paths, which always bring the greatest rewards. There we shall find rest in reason, wisdom, philosophy, knowing they are allies, true sources of joy, and not homework or something burdensome.

Along our paths we shall be tempted, and may be deceived by pleasure, thinking such actions are fine and there is not much else better. Choosing such is short-term, impatient, foolish thinking. Not wrong, but simply the easy way out when presented with struggle. Pleasure – sex, drugs, rock n roll, idleness, fame, indulgence of any kind – is easy, cheap, and sweet in the moment. Yet reason, wisdom, philosophy, and actions based on them – is difficult, rich, and sweet for all time.