Meditations #24

 In death, Alexander of Macedon's end differed no whit from his stable boy's. Either both were received into the same generative principle of the universe, or both alike were dispersed into atoms.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Six

When we are in love (and I hope to feel that again someday) we act as if no one has ever felt as we feel at that moment - and when the love ends (and I hope to not feel that again someday) we act as if no one has ever suffered as we are that moment. In a way, of course, this is how we view out lives: utterly unique phenomena that change the world forever, which, of course, is absurd. Following that logic, and cycling back around to MA, wouldn't that also be true of our deaths as well? This is not to say that Alexander didn't change the world in a way that his stable boy didn't - I was just talking to my friend Kerry and Steve last night about how I'd like to teach a class on the historical and cultural influence of Alexander (as compared to what he did during his life). However, I agree with MA in that when Alexander and his stable boy lay dying, at that moment, what was happening to them, either for good or bad or nil, added up to the same thing.