Ryan Holiday

And so when Mark Stabilis is saying you, although he means me, he accidentally ends up meaning all of us.

And that is the beauty of and the power of meditations.

Debra, you're up.

Hello.

I'm doing great.

Oh, that's a great question.

Yeah.

You know, it's funny.

I don't have my OG copy on me.

I have a new one here in front of me.

But it's funny to watch as I go through it.

I can see that I asked questions to myself when I read it the first time that, you know, I've subsequently been able to answer or differing opinions as I go.

I mean...

When Marcus Aurelius talks about the idea of living in accordance with nature, that's not a concept the Stoics define super well.

There are also, I think, some passages in meditations that feel...

almost nihilistic.

You know, he says, this is book 636, Asia and Europe, distant recesses of the universe, the ocean, a drop of water, Mount Athos, a molehill, the present, a split second in eternity, minuscule, transitory, insignificant.

You know, there are moments, you know, there's one passage where he goes, what does it matter if you live to be old or not?

What do you care?

There's just some passages where I wouldn't say Marcus seems depressed, but he does seem almost excessively cynical or, yeah, there's just a darkness to it.