Dear Fellow Traveler,
Yes, navigating life can be perplexing. Many things are beyond our control (or not up to us), yet we encounter a seemingly infinite number of choices. And these choices ultimately create our lives.
The choices begin as soon as we open our eyes. Whether or not to get out of bed? It’s a perennial question, the daily life type anyway, that might seem rather mundane. But these are essential questions.
Why we do anything reveals what matters (at least at that moment).
In his book Socrates Express, Eric Weiner (a previous podcast guest) writes,
Marcus and I don’t seem to have much in common. Centuries separate us, not to mention a not-insignificant power differential. Marcus controlled an empire that covered an area equal to roughly half the continental United States. I control an area roughly half the size of my desk and, truth be told, even that is a struggle. … Yet I read Marcus and our differences dissolve. We are brothers, Marcus and I. He, running and empire and wrestling with his demons; and me, feeding the cat and wrestling with my demons. We have a common enemy: mornings.
The “Marcus” that he is referring to is the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Specifically, a well-known passage from his Meditations (or notes to himself), where he wrestles with getting out of bed.
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