The Daily Stoic - We Face The Path Of Time

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

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Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to The Daily Stoic early and ad free right now. Just join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcast. and wisdom, everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailysteelit.com. We face the path of time. It didn't matter that he was powerful. It didn't matter that he was wise. It didn't matter that so many people depended on him, didn't matter that he kept the same stern and rigorous habits of his youth. Marcus Aurelius was getting old. He,

like all of us, faced the path of time. Indeed, he walked it every day like we do, going in only one direction, older, further away from our younger self, never to return. We catch Marcus in meditations as the reality of this is sinking in. He had always meditated on death, that's the practice of memento mori, but now he was no longer a young man. In fact, he was a marked man. It's a painful realization, one that too many of us try to deny or distract ourselves from. We push the thought away. We fantasize about breakthroughs in medicine

or discovery of the fountain of youth. We think other people are old, but us? We still feel the same as we always do, so we pretend like nothing changed. Seneca was rudely awakened from this impression on a visit to his boyhood home. The sight of it was disappointing, especially the old and dying trees which ringed the house.

In his youth, the house had been surrounded by especially the old and dying trees which ringed the house. In his youth, the house had been surrounded by lively, fresh and green trees. In fact, he had helped plant them himself. That's when Seneca got hit with the dose of the reality he could not escape. These were the same trees of his youth, and they were coming to the end of their lives, and by extension, so was he. Again, none of Seneca's habits, his cold plunges, his strict diets, his workouts in the gymnasium could change this. We all face the path of time. We all get older.

We all eventually inevitably die. We are marked men. Memento mori. If you like The Daily Stoic, and thanks for listening, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. And before you go, would you tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey on Wondery.com slash survey.