By Kary Love
Dear Don: I have returned to the universe, as all things must, including you, naked and squalling, and you cannot take your money with you, nor your gold plated do-dads, nor your “empire.” I have detected electromagnetic brain waves and other transmissions from the realm of the briefly living indicating that you have an apparent desire to be Caesar, or a King. Let me, who was Caesar, give you a little advice based on such wisdom as I was able to garner from long, hard, painful experience in life.
First and most important: “Take care that you are not made into a Caesar, that you are not dyed with this purple dye; for such things happen. Keep yourself rather simple, good, pure, serious from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts. … help people. Life is short.” (The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, VI, ¶ 30); below “MMA”.)
Remember “Alexander the Great and his servant by death were brought to the same state; for either they were received among the same seminal principles of the universe or they were alike dispersed among the atoms. (MMA, VI ¶ 24) Remember “How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it. “ (MMA, VI ¶56.)
“This is the Chief thing: …in a little time you will be nobody and nowhere, like Hadrian (Caesar) and Augustus (Caesar) (MMA, VIII ¶5).”
“Soon very soon, you will be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a name or not even a name; but name is sound and echo, and the things which are much valued in life are empty and rotten and trifling, like little dogs biting each other…. But fidelity and modesty and justice and truth are fled ‘Up to Olympus from the wide spread earth’.” (MMA, V ¶33)
I understand Don you read little, but what I am saying here is the valuable things fly up to Olympus, the home of my gods, what you may call “heaven” in your time.
Ask yourself, Don, “How have you behaved in your life to the gods, your parents, brethren, children, teachers, to those who looked after you after your infancy, to your friends, kinsfolk, to your slaves (servants, contractors). Consider if you have behaved to all in such a way that this may be said of you: Never has wronged a person in deed of word. (MMA V, ¶31.)
This, Don, is more important than being Caesar when you return to atoms, as you will, naked, alone and perhaps to be judged?
Recall that the universe unites all. “The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now molds a horse, and when it has broken this up (in the grave) it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else…. But it is no hardship to be broken up…” (MMA, VII, ¶23)
The circle of life goes on! Your atoms may come back as a horse, try not to return as a horse’s ass, indicted by your own life as lived. “All things are implicated with one another and the bond is holy.” (MMA, VII, ¶ 9)
One of your holy men said: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” for by your acts towards others you may be judged.
So, as I have said, Don, take care that you are not made into Caesar because such “elevation” is illusory and impairs one’s capacity to be human to other humans due to sycophants, the power of Praetorian Guards, and isolation from others. “Let us try to persuade men. But act even against their will, when the principals of justice lead that way.” (MMA, VI, ¶ 50)
Beware “advisors” who take you down a dark path to obtain objectives of their own, such as foreign wars—ask “qui bono,” who benefits. Seek to benefit all equally.
Remember finally, where true delight is to be found in your brief time before returning to atoms from which other things emerge. “When you wish to delight yourself, think of the virtues of those who live with you; for instance, the activity of one, and the modesty of another, and the liberality of a third, and some other good quality of a fourth. For nothing delights so much as the examples of the virtues, when they are exhibited in the morals of those who live with us and present themselves in abundance, as far as possible. Wherefore we must keep them before us.” (MMA, VI, ¶ 48)
Your success raising your children to be virtuous humans is your greatest delight and highest accomplishment.
Don, your atoms are soon to be joined with mine, to mix and jiggle, to continue to emerge into the world in other forms, other lives. They may be those of a shoeless migrant, a peasant working a field, a fisherman on a boat in the Caribbean, or any other thing made of atoms. All those who considered themselves the great and powerful return to atomic dust equal with the lowest, the meanest, the least. Given this truth, “One thing here is worth a great deal, to pass your life in truth and justice, with a benevolent disposition even to liars and unjust men.” (MMA VI, ¶47)
Having been Caesar, Don, one often regarded by others as a Great Caesar, I now reside among the atoms, and from that vantage point, see more clearly into truth. I hope my advice is beneficial to you. I will see you, or your atoms, soon.
Very truly yours, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Kary Love, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Michigan attorney who has defended nuclear resisters and many others in court for decades.