YES TO HAPPINESS

A friend by the name of Terrence Freeman, shared a beautiful book with me four years ago.  This is the third time that I’ve had the privilege and honor of reading.  It isn’t like some ordinary or average book.  In fact, it is like any other book you might’ve read over the past year or two. 

I’m referring to Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.  It truly is astonishing and amazing at the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and sheer intelligence of Marcus Aurelius, a young man at the age of 13 was being groomed to be the Emperor of Rome.  I truly believe that if someone were to speak of the expressions he left behind.  It would be a sense of brilliance, never mind the pondering from a young man born just 121 years after Christ Jesus died.   

“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” 

~ Marcus Aurelius 

This young empire was the head of the Roman empire back during an age when it was pretty fuck’n common to chop a man in half with a sword like a piece of bacon.  It truly is remarkable to think of all the principles, methods,  and strategies he left behind that far too many have never heard of today.  I genuinely cannot imagine what it would’ve been like to live back during those harsh times.  When young boys became man at a rapid speed.  

It is hard to really wrap our minds around the idea of living back then and I believe it is because our whole life has been comprised of modern civilization.  In fact, for the last 80 years it is all we’ve ever known.  Could you imagine Elon Musk creating a time machine to go back in history only to drop your ass off in 121AD with no way of returning to the present time.  I am more than certain that some individuals would certainly consider taking their own lives.  This truly makes me wonder how the future civilization will look back at us.  

As modern civilization — We have waged war against lands that are not are own.  We have looked to government for direction and guidance.  We have allowed technology to be our demise and distraction.  We have allowed pharmaceutical industries to poison our hearts, minds and livelihood.  We have seen what corruption, ignorance, arrogance, fear mongering, and psychological behavioral modification through television networks.  We have seen the global advancement of high-speed planes, trains and electric cars.  We have lived in a civilization where information is instantaneously at the hands of those 5 years old to 80 years old  We have seen the power of Wi-Fi as well as pocket-size drones launching missiles into civilians.  

I think it’s hard to see because we’re living in the middle of it, the paradigm. However, I believe history is going to study as carefully, the professors. The bibliophiles, scholars, and researchers are going to be stunned and in uh at the speed of our own destruction that came so quickly.  Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, and many other stoics and historical leaders will look down in disarray as to what we’ve allowed our civilization to become.  

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius ruled from 161 to 180 AD, and developed a reputation for being the ideal wise leader Plato termed the "philosopher king." Emperor Marcus Aurelius has remained relevant for 1,800 + years largely due to his writings collected as Meditations.  Your energy and time are both limited, so do not waste them on what those inconsequential to your life are doing, thinking, and saying.  Emperor Marcus Aurelius says: “The duty of a human being is to help others that we share life with, and one should not fill one's mind with anxiety-inducing, frivolous thoughts, especially since they often lead to negative outcomes.”  Ryan Holiday cites author Nassim Taleb's definition of a Stoic, which is someone who "transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking."  As Marcus writes: "Something happens to you.  Good. It was meant for you by nature, woven into the pattern from the beginning... Get what you can from the present — thoughtfully, justly."

In closing... The Emperor Marcus Aurelius was heavily influenced by the thinking of the first-century stoics, perhaps in part because his time on this earth was so difficult.  I personally believe our time on this earth right now is difficult to some degree or in some different way.  I believe the modern man or woman can find much in the knowledge, wisdom, understanding of Marcus Aurelius that still applies perhaps more than ever today.    

The End 

With gratitude, 

Coach Frank Sagasta 

Husband, Father, and Educational Leader