Massimo Pigliucci

She meant it as a joke, but it was, you know.

And then all of a sudden things took a turn for the worse and it killed him in a matter of weeks.

In fact, it was so fast that I did not have the time to really do anything.

You know, I was on my way, literally on my way to the airport to get on the plane to get to Rome and go see him.

And my brother called me saying, you know, dad just died.

I literally broke down crying on the highway.

I had to pull over.

So I was able to get to his funeral, but not being there in the last few moments.

So at this point, picture this.

In a span of a few months, I got hit with this news that apparently I'm going to be divorced.

My father dies.

And in the meantime, of course, I had accepted the position at Stony Brook, which meant that I had a new job.

I had to move across the country and I had to find a new house.

Now, any psychologist worth his salt would tell you that one or two of those things is pretty stressful.

Four or five of them simultaneously, that's a lot.

The book was The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, which is a Stoic book.

And that's interesting in itself because the first time that I came across Marcus Aurelius, I thought, Stoics is, ah, come on, who wants to live a life like a Stoic?

I mean, aren't these the kind of people that go around with a stiff upper lip and suppressing emotions, right?

So kind of like Mr. Spock from Star Trek.

So when I came across Marcus again, I thought, hmm, I don't know about this thing.