Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: We must limit the running to and fro which most…
We must limit the running to and fro which most men practise, rambling about houses, theatres, and market-places. They mind other men’s business, and always seem as though they themselves had something to do.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
Being everywhere can be a way of being nowhere. We move between group chats, meetings, news feeds, errands, and other people’s dramas, feeling busy because we are constantly in motion. Yet at the end of the day, nothing important has received our full attention. Seneca noticed this long before smartphones: people who are always involved in someone else’s business often have no business of their own. Curiosity and sociability are good, but they need boundaries. You do not have to know every development, answer every message immediately, or attend every conversation that invites you in. Protect your attention as if it were money, because you spend it only once. Today, decline one piece of unnecessary noise and use that recovered time on the task, person, or thought that actually deserves you.
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