I am on spring break and finally have more time to write! I took an extremely challenging exam this week, so excuse my brain dump, but I found the following to be hanging about my mind.
I admire Alexander the Great and Marcus Aurelius—arguably my favorite historical figures. I only wish our current leaders possessed the same wisdom they embodied—but alas.
“Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both. They were absorbed alike into the life force of the world, or dissolved alike into atoms.”
Marcus Aurelius
Ok, this one is deep, but let’s apply Stoicism to it: you are going to die. In fact, to study philosophy is to learn how to die (Montaigne said that and I think it’s badass. Oh hey look, he’s been dead for a while now.)
If you think I am being depressing, you are mistaken (and that is to no fault of your own. I picked up the teachings of Marcus Aurelius back in 2019 and had a similar reaction. “Bloody hell, is this dude a debbie-downer”) No offense to anyone named Debbie. But, seriously, I want people to share in this amazing spiritual shift. It’s not depressing; in reality I argue that my life has never been more content than when I learned how to die!
Alexander The Great’s empire, built in just 13 years, spanned approximately 2 million square miles. And what am I doing with my life!?
Getting comfortable with death became an interest of mine during my years as a firefighter/EMT in Alaska. I won’t dabble too much in this; people die, and I wanted to learn why. Stoicism was the antidote to my pondering of this.
The dirt thrown over the graves of Alexander and his army’s mule driver was the exact same. Ok, we can argue that Alexander’s dirt had roses and coins mixed in. Come to think of it, most people were cremated back then so who the hell really knows… These tales are as lost to history as can be. The take away: both were made with the atoms of the world, and it was time for the world to reclaim those atoms. It’s as natural a process as breathing!
“So I won’t exist anymore? No, you won’t- but something else will, which the universe now needs. For you also came into existence not when you chose, but when the world had need of you.”
Epictetus, Discourses 3.24.94
Final Thoughts
If you’ve read the above and were saddened by it, think about religion- it is a vehicle to prepare us for death. Stoicism, philosophy, spirituality, etc, are also vehicles that prepare us for death (albeit most do not promise an afterlife.) We have this weird stigma in society that meditating on death somehow makes you depressed or a downer (again I had this same maxim before I really dove into Stoicism 6 years ago.)
I could argue that one truly begins living when they realize that they’re already dying each day. I enjoy the teachings of Stoicism because they highlight that every single day we live is a handshake between Death and the gods. The previous day now belongs to death and the next belongs to the gods.
Set sail and live!
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