Meditations #34

 Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Ten

I mean, well duh, but at the same time it is one of the most profound things Marcus Aurelius ever said. Not to be too pedestrian, but are you going to talk the talk or walk the walk? All too often we, and intellectuals (or pseudo-intellectuals like me) talk endlessly about what a better world might be, but do little or nothing to make it a reality. Steve and I have this conversation at the Food Shelf all the time: that's another box of food loaded into another person's trunk, and that's the best thing I'll do this week. I'm not saying I'm a good person, because I'm obviously not, but the point is that we tried to do something tangible, even in a small way, to make someone's life a little better. There have been times at division meetings when we'll be talking about the efforts of Techdren to bring laptops to Zanzibar, and one of my more effete colleagues will sniff about White Savior Complex, to which my response is something like, "Look, paraphrasing Archer, you need to shut up and keep shutting up." Actually, my response is usually angry and profanity laden, but . . . Anyway, the point is, what are you doing to make the world a better place? Do something, try and be a good person, that little action means more than all your philosophizing.