The best life, you will agree, is that of a good man, and yet the end even of such a man is death.
Therefore, as I said before, if one in old age should succeed in mastering this lesson, to wait for death without fear and courageously, he would have acquired no small part of how to live without complaint and in accordance with Nature. He would acquire this by associating with men who were philosophers not in name only but in truth, if he were willing to follow their teachings.
So it is that I tell you that the best viaticum for old age is the one I mentioned in the beginning, to live according to Nature, doing and thinking what one ought. For so an old man would himself be most cheerful and would win the praise of others, and being thus, he would live happily and in honor.
Why should I insist on having more of something that can already be complete in its excellence at any one given moment?
Why am I demanding to be in a constant state of ever greater becoming, when nothing can be ultimately transformed except by means of an ending?
Am I really telling myself that seeking more and more consumption will satisfy me, even as I know full well that true contentment would leave nothing else to be desired?
If I am already happy to live according to Nature, death can never take anything away from me, and so I will have no reason to fear it. Growing weaker in my body, or being parted from my friends, or slowly becoming forgotten only sound terrifying when I am still expecting something “better” to come along. Being dissatisfied with who I am now can only reflect on my own failure to have lived and appreciated what is now.
Truly wise people will be truly good people, and truly good people will be truly joyful people. The limitations of merely bookish learning or narrow professional achievements become rather apparent when I find myself no better as a man, and so also no happier as a man. Wisdom should yield abundant fruit, not leave only more grasping or resentment.
People will offer all sorts of specialized cures for all sorts of specific ailments, and most of them will require the payment of money or obedience to receive their supposed benefits. In my own lifetime, I have seen many lose their financial savings for the sake of medical treatments, and I have also seen many lose their freedom and dignity for the sake of ideological belonging.
Let us prefer what we will, but there is really only one cure for anything that brings us grief and pain in this life. Our human nature, in harmony with Providence and the whole of Nature, provides all that is necessary. Revere what is true and love what is good, so that nothing, not even old age or death, will stand as an obstacle.
Written in 4/2000
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