“Many times an old man has no other evidence besides his age to prove he has lived a long time.”
SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 3.8b
When I’m old, and lying on my death bed, I want to look back at my life and say confidently that I really lived. That I didn’t just let the days and hours of my life pass by like sands through the hourglass, but that I truly seized the moment and made the most of it. If at the end, all I have is age to prove my life, then I will have come up short by my own accounting.
I want to know that I tried my hardest to get to know myself while I still had time. When I’m about to breathe my last, I want to look back and be confident that I traded the time I was given for full value, and that I wasted as little as possible on pointless endeavors.
When the Sword of Damocles finally falls, I hope to be someone who has spent as much time as possible working on themselves, and studying (and practicing) how to be a better person. That I helped my community, and helped the people around me. That I filled my heart with love, and the hearts of others, too.
Age is not just a number — for me, I feel it should represent a lot more. And that’s the point of today’s quote from Seneca in The Daily Stoic book.
