Aurelius...

The Project Gutemberg text of The Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus mentions several of the English translations of the work that have appeared over the years, but strangely, does not identify the translation that appears in the file itself.

In any event, I happened across the following in the "second book," of The Meditations, which is something I want to wrap my mind around (hence my interpretation, in blue):

If thou shouldst live three thousand, or as many as ten thousands of years, yet remember this,

No matter how long you live, keep in mind...

...man can part with no life properly, save with that little part of life, which he now lives...

...the only life you can really lose is the brief moment you are experiencing now...

...and that which he lives, is no other, than that which at every instant he parts with.

...but the moment you are experiencing now is something you're losing all the time.

That then, which is longest of duration, and that which is shortest, come both to one effect.

So it doesn't matter how long something exists, because it's all the same.

For although in regard of that which is already past there may be some inequality,...

Because while some have lived longer than others,...

...yet that time which is now present and in being, is equal unto all men.

...everyone who is alive is experiencing the same 'now' moment.

And that being it which we part with whensoever we die,...

And since it is that 'now' moment that we lose when we die...

...it doth manifestly appear, that it can be but a moment of time, that we then part with.

... it's then obvious that that's the only thing we lose.

For as for that which is either past or to come, a man cannot be said properly to part with it.

We cannot lose the past or the future.

For how should a man part with that which he hath not?

Because you can't lose what you don't have.

These two things therefore thou must remember.

So remember this:

First, that all things in the world from all eternity, by a perpetual revolution of the same times and things ever continued and renewed, are of one kind and nature;...

There's nothing new under the sun, everything repeats itself...

...so that whether for a hundred or two hundred years only, or for an infinite space of time, a man see those things which are still the same, it can be no matter of great moment.

so it doesn't really matter how long you live...

And secondly, that that life which any the longest liver, or the shortest liver parts with, is for length and duration the very same,...

The person who lives a long life and the person who lives a short life lose the same thing,...

...for that only which is present, is that, which either of them can lose, as being that only which they have;...

...and that is the 'now' common to both, which is the only thing they have;...

...for that which he hath not, no man can truly be said to lose.

...because you can't really lose something you don't have.

It'll probably take me a while to properly grok this.

Meanwhile, I've still got work to do before hitting the rack!

Cheers...