23/11/2023
We're exploring a bit of ancient wisdom today.....
IT'S ALL A GIFT. Although it doesn’t seem that way of course. The economy is a mess, the government is dysfunctional, the virus is still there, screwing up plans and making us sick. People are annoying. People are frustrating. Your co-worker is a jerk. Your kid just broke his arm. Everything is expensive, so expensive.
This isn’t how things are supposed to be is it? Well, it’s pretty much how things have always been. Look at Marcus Aurelius, author of Meditations and Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD. During his reign and life, he knew all those things intimately, plus many other tragedies. In Meditations, Marcus is vague about some things and very specific about others. As a general rule, Marcus does not talk much about the plague he lived through or the grief he felt. Nowhere does he bemoan the disasters which happened with such frequency that one ancient historian described Marcus Aurelius’ reign as an unending series of troubles. Marcus skips over all this, but you know what he spends a full 10% of Meditations talking about in very clear detail? The gratitude he felt to the people who had helped him, who had inspired him, who had taught him.
It’s a lesson: Marcus was shrugging off the negative and embracing the positive. He was actively defining what he was grateful for, and he was choosing to accept what he could not control. And this is a great example for us to follow.
“Convince yourself that everything is the gift of the gods,” he wrote in Meditations, “that things are good and always will be.” When the ancient philosopher Epictetus talks about how every situation has two handles, this is what he means. You can decide to grab onto anger or appreciation, fear or fellowship. You can pick up the handle of resentment or of gratitude. You can look at the obstacle or get a little closer and see the opportunity.
It’s so easy to miss the fact that Marcus Aurelius could not have been Marcus Aurelius without that unending series of troubles. The difficulties shaped him, refined him, called greatness out of him. It’s also easy to miss, when we focus on all the bad breaks the guy got, all the tragedies he experienced, that Marcus was also incredibly lucky. After all, he was chosen to be emperor. For next to no reason at all, Hadrian selected a young boy and gifted him unlimited power and wealth and fame. Marcus had a wonderful wife, a stepfather he adored, amazing teachers and he discovered Stoicism, which guided him when he most needed it. For everything that went wrong in his life, for everything that was taken from him, he in fact received an equal number of gifts.
So as you gather around your family and friends this Thanksgiving or Christmas or any other celebration you might partake in this year, of course, appreciate it and give thanks for all the obvious and bountiful gifts that moment presents. Just make sure that when the moment passes, as you go back to your everyday, ordinary life that you make gratitude a regular part of it. Again—not simply for what is easy and immediately pleasing, but for all of it, for every day.
I am thankful today and every day for knowing you.
