It's absurd to write a critical review of a book that has endured for more than 1500 years. It's even more absurd to do so without finishing that book, especially given how short it is (163 small pages in the edition I picked up from my closest little free library).
But I just can't.
Meditations is a foundational work of Stoicism, written by the Roman Emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius in the second century AD. The very fact that this text still exists after all this time is a testament to the wisdom that generations of readers have found in its words.
But when Aurelius writes of accepting whatever life gives you with a quiet mind because it is what Nature has allotted to you, I can't help reflecting how much easier it would have been to do so as the adopted son of an emperor, and then emperor yourself than it would have been to do so as one of his own slaves. When Aurelius rates the "womanish" sins of desire (sins that are pleasurable) as worse than the (more manly) sins of passion (involuntary loss of control), I reflect first on the misogyny of calling such sins feminine, and then on how sins of desire primarily hurt the sinner while sins of passion like 'striking out in anger' hurt others. And then there's the irony of the passages that speak of the futility of seeking lasting fame. :-)
This isn't a book that speaks to me, even if I could learn from the Meditations on procrastination, keeping an even keel, and the other lessons that I haven't yet read (and probably never will).
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