Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.17

To seek what is impossible is madness, and it is impossible that the bad should not do something of this kind.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5 (tr Long)

I have to squirm when I think of all the time I have wasted in wanting the world to change for me. Why did this have to happen? Why did it all go one way instead of another? Why can’t this or that person just be better?

The time would have been far better spent improving myself, which is quite possible, than trying to determine the world, which is quite impossible.

There will always be selfish, dishonest, and abusive people, because we are rational creatures, and rational creatures act from their own judgments. We will always choose what we think to be best for us, and where there is the possibility of a good choice, there is also the possibility of a bad choice. I cannot insist on the freedom of my own actions, while at the same time denying it to others, however mistaken I may think they are in their decisions.

I should also not think that Nature somehow made a mistake in allowing this state of affairs. Everything within the whole will act for the sake of the whole, even when the order behind this purpose is not immediately apparent to me. Providence will permit things that may seem wrong to me, but I must remember that any circumstance, however disturbing, can be an opportunity for good. 

This is especially fitting within the Stoic model of virtue, because what is good within my life, and how I fulfill my part within the world, will depend only on what I make of things, not what they make of me.

When I see another trying to do me harm, I should not despair that all will be lost, or think that Providence is in error, or even wish that it were not so. I must remember that everything is as it is for a reason, and this includes how human freedom is itself a part of Providence.

The person who tries to do me harm will, of course, really only harm his own character, while at the same time giving me the means to build my own, by responding to evil with good. In this way, something wrong is transformed into something right. Instead of seeing only doom and gloom when my neighbor acts poorly, I must think how I can turn it around to act well. In so doing, I may also help the bad man, as well as helping myself.

The way I choose to think and live and the way another chooses to think and live are already a part of the way all things are meant to be. There can, I believe, be a profound sense of gratitude from being given the power to rule myself, and a profound sense of reverence from knowing that my own power participates fully in a greater harmony of purpose.

How foolish to wish it to be different than it should be. 

Written in 6/2006