Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.51

With food and drinks and cunning magic arts

Turning the channel's course to escape from death.

The wind which heaven has sent

We must endure, and toil without complaining.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7 (tr Long)

The Philosopher-Emperor continues to have a thing for Euripides, and I can hardly blame him. A good tragedy can do much to cleanse the soul.

Now how much of my time have I wasted in improving the health of my body, with all sorts of cures and treatments, costing me many and many thousands of dollars? And yet how much have I committed to my soul, the health of my character?

I had honestly lost count when a dentist told me he would gladly fix my broken front tooth, but that he could also make me more beautiful and attractive by rearranging and rebuilding my entire mouth.

“You’ll look great! Think of how it will change you life!”

I took a deep breath. “How will pretty teeth change me? I’m a geek, a nerd, a hideous dork. My teeth feel fine. Just fix that front one so I can chew, and I’ll be happy.”

He wouldn’t give up, perhaps thinking I was a sucker for that sort of thing. “Women like good teeth!” he said

“Not the women who interest me, not at all. If a woman loves me for my smile, she’s hardly a good woman.”

He frowned and gave up, and then fixed the broken tooth. To this day, it sits crooked, but it does exactly what Nature made it to do. It helps me to bite off my food.

Look at all of the magic arts we appeal to in order to improve our lives, and all of the magic arts we use to lengthen our lives. One day it wasn’t about teeth anymore. It was about surviving.

“Look, we can put you on some great drugs, and there are all sorts of surgical options. I’m going to suggest we place you on the surgical schedule right now.”

“Why?”

I’ve never seen a more dumbfounded look in my life. “So you can live longer, obviously!”

“Why do I need to live longer? Is it worth months of living like a vegetable in bed, only to end up dying just a bit later in any event, and leaving my family with crippling medical bills?”

The poor fellow was aghast. “But you might live for a few more years. . . “

And there’s the thing. We fight against Nature to make ourselves younger and prettier, and we fight against Nature to make ourselves survive for just a little bit more. All the time, we are forgetting that this is not the most important struggle.

Face the wind. I walk into the wind while I can, and I gladly let it blow me away when I no longer can. There is no shame in it, and there is actually great dignity in it. Disease, old age, and death will come, and all that remains to be decided is how I will choose to take it.

Written in 2/2017