Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Marcus Aurelius: Let not the general representation unto…
Let not the general representation unto thyself of the wretchedness of this our mortal life, trouble thee. Let not thy mind wander up and down, and heap together in her thoughts the many troubles and grievous calamities which thou art as subject unto as any other.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Meditations. The reading beside it is ours.
The mind can manufacture suffering in bulk. It takes one hard thing and adds every other hard thing that might happen: the job could disappear, the relationship could fail, the diagnosis could be worse, and then what? Marcus tells us not to carry the entire catalog of human misery at once. You are not asked to solve every possible catastrophe today. You are asked to meet the actual difficulty in front of you. This is especially useful when anxiety starts forecasting months or years ahead. Come back to facts. What has happened? What needs doing in the next hour? Who can help? A life is not made unbearable by its full theoretical weight; it is lived in moments. When your thoughts begin piling up troubles today, set down the ones that are not here. Deal carefully with the one that is.
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