2024-06-18 23:26:12 +00:00
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<title>The Internet Vagabond :: Seneca's Letter to Lucilius, Letter 1</title>
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<span class="first">T</span>he
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<span class="first">I</span>nternet
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<span class="first">V</span>agabond
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<h1>Letter 1: On Time</h1>
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<h2>Original Text</h2>
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<p> Greetings from Seneca to his friend Lucilius.</p>
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<p>1. Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius – set yourself free for your own
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sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you,
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or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands. Make yourself
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believe the truth of my words, – that certain moments are torn from us, that
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some are gently removed, and that others glide beyond our reach. The most
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disgraceful kind of loss, however, is that due to carelessness. Furthermore,
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if you will pay close heed to the problem, you will find that the largest
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portion of our life passes while we are doing ill, a goodly share while we
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are doing nothing, and the whole while we are doing that which is not to the
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purpose. 2. What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who
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reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? For
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we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death
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has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands.</p>
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<p>Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour
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in your grasp. Lay hold of to-day's task, and you will not need to depend so
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much upon to-morrow's. While we are postponing, life speeds by. 3. Nothing,
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Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the
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ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who
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will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be! They allow
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the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be
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charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never
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regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious
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commodity, – time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful
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recipient cannot repay.</p>
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<p>4. You may desire to know how I, who preach to you so freely, am practising.
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I confess frankly: my expense account balances, as you would expect from one
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who is free-handed but careful. I cannot boast that I waste nothing, but I
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can at least tell you what I am wasting, and the cause and manner of the
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loss; I can give you the reasons why I am a poor man. My situation, however,
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is the same as that of many who are reduced to slender means through no
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fault of their own: every one forgives them, but no one comes to their
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rescue.</p>
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<p>5. What is the state of things, then? It is this: I do not regard a man as
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poor, if the little which remains is enough for him. I advise you, however,
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to keep what is really yours; and you cannot begin too early. For, as our
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ancestors believed, it is too late to spare when you reach the dregs of the
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cask. Of that which remains at the bottom, the amount is slight, and the
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quality is vile. Farewell.</p>
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<h2>Response</h2>
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<p>Time management. I'm pretty bad at time management. It's interesting
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re-reading this letter after having read ahead a few. This one reads much
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less personal than his later letters. Perhaps an indication of a developing
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relationship.</p>
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<p>Much of the letter emphasizes the importance of being present, and aware. One
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of the most impactful parts of this letter epitomizes this: "Whatever years
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be behind us are in death's hands." The acceptance of death as a necessary
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and constant part of life is a Stoic theme, but this sentence reminds us of
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this reality without remorse. Replace 'years' with 'time', and the letter's
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theme is laid bare: time is an expense account you can only hope to balance,
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and never credit. Seneca himself makes this comparison, noting that he only
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balances his by being aware of his expenditures. To him, it seems being
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aware of the waste is enough to balance the waste itself, which I find
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interesting.</p>
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<p>Seneca's account of how we spend our time strikes me as a tad cynical:
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"...the largest portion of our life passes while we are doing ill, a goodly
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share while we are doing nothing, and the whole while we are doing that
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which is not to the purpose." Essentially, we spend most of our life not
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doing what we intend to do, either because we fail to act, or we "[do] ill".
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If I interpret "doing ill" to mean not pursuing Stoic virtue, I can
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extrapolate "the purpose" to mean living a virtuous life. I think the
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statement seeks more specific examples than the entirety of life's pursuit,
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though, and in those cases "doing ill" could mean doing that which does not
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benefit the specific pursuit. This could be playing video games instead of
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cleaning my house, for example. In this case, it seems apt to define "doing
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ill" as procrastination, and "the purpose" being whatever our goal is at
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that particular moment. Though an interesting third option is more of a
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relativity approach: we feel that life passes us by fastest while "doing
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ill" or doing nothing, and in general life seems to pass by faster when we
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are not focusing on our task than when we are. The ol' "Time flies while
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you're having fun" chestnut. Not to say "doing ill" is having fun, though.
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Rather, "doing ill" is like partying until 4am, and wondering how it got so
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late.</p>
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<p> Live in the moment, be aware of how you spend your time, and always act to
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spend it wisely. Just be aware: no matter how carefully you budget, your
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account will always be indebted to death.</p>
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<h3>Source</h3>
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<p><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_1">
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Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 1 on Wikisource
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</a></p>
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Bill Niblock
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2018-01-15
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<p>
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My name is <span class="p-name">Bill Niblock</span>. <span
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class="p-note">I'm a computer scientist by education, a technologist
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by trade, a gamer by hobby, and a philosopher by accident. I
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live in <span class="p-locality">Buffalo</span>, <span class="p-region">
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New York</span>, <span class="p-country-name">USA</span>.<br />
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<br />
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My PGP Key is <span class="u-key" id="key">CCE7 3682 331B 5614 9FAB
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7383 7359 80B2 6381 C91E</span>.
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<span class="u-email">bill@theinternetvagabond.com</span>
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2024-06-18 23:26:12 +00:00
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