(독서) Daily Stoic-12월15일 A SIMPLE WAY TO MEASURE OUR DAYS

"Soon you will die, and still you aren't sincere, undisturbed, or free from suspicion that external things can harm you, nor are you gracious to all, knowing that wisdom and acting justly are one and the same."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.37 ("곧 당신은 죽게 될 것입니다. 그런데도 여전히 진실하지 않고, 평온하지 않으며, 외부의 것들이 당신에게 해를 끼칠 수 있다는 의심에서 자유롭지 않습니다. 또한 지혜와 정의롭게 행동하는 것이 하나라는 사실을 알면서도 모든 이에게 친절하지 않습니다." - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 명상록 4.37)   From what we understand, Marcus wrote many of his meditations later in life, when he was suffering from serious illnesses. So when he says, "Soon you will die," he was speaking frankly to himself about his own mortality. How scary that must have been. He was staring at the real possibility of death and not liking what he saw in these last minutes.   Sure, he'd accomplished many things in his life, but his emotions were still the cause of discomfort, pain, and frustration. He knew that with his limited time left, better choices would provide relief.   Hopefully, you have a lot more time left-but that makes it even more important to make headway while you still can. We are unfinished products up until the end, as Marcus knew very well. But the earlier we learn it, the more we can enjoy the ...

"You aren't bothered, are you, because you weigh a certain amount and not twice as much? So why get worked up that you've been given a certain lifespan and not more? Just as you are satisfied with your normal weight, so you should be with the time you've been given."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 6.49 ("당신은 자신의 몸무게가 어떤 수치이고 그 두 배가 아닌 것에 대해 신경 쓰지 않으십니까? 그렇다면 주어진 수명이 어떤 기간이고 그보다 더 길지 않은것에 대해 왜 마음을 쓰십니까? 마치 자신의 정상 체중에 만족하는 것처럼, 주어진 시간에도 만족해야 합니다."-마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 명상록 6.49)   They say age is just a number, but to some people it's a very important one - otherwise, women wouldn't lie about being younger, and ambitious young men wouldn't lie about being older. Rich people and health nuts spend billions of dollars in an effort to move the expiration date from around seventy-eight years to hopefully forever.   The number of years we manage to eke out doesn't matter, only what those years are composed of. Seneca put it best when he said, "Life is long if you ...

"Walk the long gallery of the past, of empires and kingdoms succeeding each other without number. And you can also see the future, for surely it will be exactly the same, unable to deviate from the present rhythm. It's all one whether we've experienced forty years or an aeon. What more is there to see?" -MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.49 ("과거의 긴 회랑을 걸어 보십시오. 수없이 이어지는 제국과 왕국의 흥망성쇠를 볼 수 있습니다. 그리고 미래 또한 볼 수 있습니다. 틀림없이 지금의 리듬에서 벗어나지 않을 것입니다. 40년을 살았든, 영겁의 세월을 살았든, 그 차이는 없습니다. 그 이상 무엇을 더 볼 수 있겠습니까?" - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 《명상록》, 7.49)   AIl things die. Not just people but companies, kingdoms, religions, and ideas – eventually. The Roman Republic lasted 450 years. The Roman Empire, of which Marcus Aurelius was considered to be one of the "five good emperors," lasted 500 years. The longest recorded life of a human being is 122 years. The average life expectancy in the United States is a little over seventy-eight years. In other ...

"As Cicero says, we hate gladiators if they are quick to save their lives by any means; we favor them if they show contempt for their lives."-SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 11.4b (키케로의 말처럼, 검투사가 목숨을 살리기 위해 수단과 방법을 가리지 않을 때 우리는 그들을 경멸합니다. 그러나 목숨을 경멸하는 모습을 보일 때 우리는 그들을 지지합니다. - 세네카, 마음의 평온에 관하여, 11.4)b   Lyndon Johnson's college classmates used to tell an embarrassing story about him. Johnson apparently had a big mouth and felt he had to constantly dominate and intimidate others. Yet his biographer, Robert Caro, makes it clear that when someone stood up to young Lyndon, he proved himself to be a complete coward. In one instance, during an argument over a poker game, instead of fighting, Johnson threw himself on a bed and "began kicking his feet in the air with a frantic, windmilling motion... like a girl." He shouted, "If you hit me, I'll kick you! If you hit me, I'll kick you!"   Later in his life, Johnson also worked extremely hard to avoid serving in World War II and lived it up in California while other soldiers. fought and died abroad. He later claimed to be a war hero. It was one of his most shameful lies.   We do not need to ...

"I say, let no one rob me of a single day who isn't going to make a full return on the loss."-SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 1.11b ("나는 누구든 나에게 하루를 앗아가려 한다면, 그 손실에 대해 온전히 보상하지 않는다면 허락하지 않을 것이다."-세네카, 마음의 평온에 대하여, 1.11b)   People spend a lot more money when they use credit cards than when they have to pull out actual cash. If you ever wondered why credit card companies and banks push cards so aggressively, this is why. The more credit cards you have, the more you'll spend.   Do we treat the days of our lives like we treat our money? Because we don't exactly know how many days we'll be alive, and because we try our hardest not to think about the fact that someday we'll die, we're pretty liberal with how freely we spend our time. We let people and obligations impose on that time, only rarely asking: What am I getting in return ...