Jottings on Marcus 1

In addition to the informal reflections, my notebooks were also full of what I called blurbs or jottings, brief reactions to small sections of text. 

While the former involved sitting down at a desk in peace and quiet for a time, the latter were hurried observations, often scribbled down at the most inconvenient moments, out of a fear that I might lose an insight before I got home. 

I do not know if any of them are worthwhile, or if it is still possible to squeeze some meaning out of them. Indeed, many of these notes now seem cryptic to me, since I have long forgotten the peculiar circumstances that inspired them. 

In any case, they are now sorted with a semblance of order, and perhaps they will eventually inspire someone to scratch his head. 

—5/2017 

• • • • • 

Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. 

All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1 

Perhaps Bias of Priene was right to say that "most people are bad." 

But why might that be? And how will I then choose to react? 

If only they knew, they would surely do better. So let me begin by working on my own awareness for this day. 

Only understanding can defeat ignorance. And only understanding makes forgiveness possible.