Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: Have we got rid of the trouble of accusation?…
Have we got rid of the trouble of accusation? then we begin that of judging. Has a man ceased to be a judge? then he becomes an examiner. Has he grown old in the salaried management of other people’s property? then he becomes occupied with his own.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
Busyness is endlessly inventive. Finish one obligation and another appears: the case is over, now there is a review; retirement comes, now there is a new committee; the children are grown, now there is a different crisis to manage. Work itself is not the enemy. Meaningful responsibility can be a gift. The danger is using a chain of duties to avoid the more difficult task of deciding how to live. If every season must be filled, then we never have to meet ourselves in the quiet. Seneca asks us to recognize that there will always be another role available to consume us. So do not wait for life to become naturally spacious. It may never do so. Create the boundary. Choose an ending time. Refuse one role you no longer need to play. Let a completed chapter actually end. Today, ask whether the next commitment is a genuine calling or merely a familiar way to stay occupied. Make room for the work only you can do: governing your own mind.
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