Meditations #39

 The daily wearing away of life, with its ever-shrinking reminder, is not the only thing we have to consider. For even if a man's years be prolonged, we must still take into account that it is doubtful whether his mind will continue to retain its capacity for the understanding of business, or for the contemplative effort needed to apprehend things divine and human. The onset of senility may involve no loss of respiratory or alimentary powers, or of sensations, impulses and so forth; nevertheless, the ability to make full use of his faculties, to assess correctly the demands of duty, to coordinate all the diverse problems that arise, to judge if the time has come to end his days on earth, or to make any other of the decisions that require the exercise of a practiced intellect, is already on the wane. We must press on, then, in haste; not simply because every hour brings us nearer to death, but because even before then our powers of perception and comprehension begin to deteriorate.

Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book Three

And since I mentioned my upcoming talk during the Vermont Public Philosophy Week, I guess I should get back into the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, not simply because of the event, but also because it continues to be an essential human activity.  I always come back to this justifiably famous and influential passage from the Meditations. It helps explain why learning Portuguese or giving talks like the upcoming one for Philosophy Week (or my one in the fall on Fernando Pessoa) or finishing the Epics and Ramadan in Winter books are so important to me.  I think it also helps explain why I dropped off of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. We simply don't have that much time, and before we ever end altogether we start to decline mentally. I need to keep living and exploring, even if it's "just" an intellectual quest.