Seneca: The Emperor Augustus lost his darling sister…

Status does not purchase an exemption from loss. The people we imagine as protected—successful executives, celebrities, heads of state, the unusually wealthy—still receive the phone calls that divide life into before and after. Seneca points to Augustus to make this plain: even supreme power could not spare him bereavement. That fact should not make us cold toward anyone's suffering. It should make us less surprised by our own. We often think, somewhere beneath the surface, that if we are careful enough, good enough, or successful enough, tragedy will pass us by. It will not. The goal of a good life is not an invulnerable life. It is a life with enough character, relationships, and perspective to meet what cannot be prevented. Today, prepare in the only sensible way: appreciate those you love, build habits of courage, and stop treating ordinary good fortune as a permanent guarantee.