Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.20

First, do nothing inconsiderately, or without a purpose.

Second, make your acts refer to nothing else than to a social end.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.20 (tr Long)

Yes, I might dismissively say, this is obvious advice. I should think about why I am doing something, and I should think about whom I am doing it for. Tell me something I don’t already know.

Well, I am being quite complacent, because I should take notice of how many times I completely fail to take that very advice.

I should take notice of how many other people around me will totally disregard it, even as they nod their heads in agreement.

I should take notice of how many of our problems arise from not even knowing what we are doing, let alone why we are doing it, or who ought to benefit.

Am I making it my purpose to act according to my own nature as a human being? In other words, am I making my moral worth my highest worth?

Is that purpose in cooperation with the purpose of other human beings, and with that of Nature as a whole? In other words, am I respecting the moral worth of others?

It turns out I’m not always being as a considerate as I would like to claim. Being considerate, after all, isn’t just about appearing decent, but about being decent.

Let me consider quite carefully that I am a creature defined by my reason and choice, by the power to know and to love, yet I am still treating wealth, pleasure, and power as if they were somehow ends.

Let me consider quite carefully that others are made for precisely the same purpose as myself, to know and to love, yet I am still treating their good as if it were somehow in conflict with my own.

Simply “winging it” in life is hardly a plan. It’s all nice and well to have my career and finances figured out for the next forty years, but it will mean nothing if I don’t have my sense of right and wrong figured out for right now.

Written in 9/2009