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A lighthearted reading of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. Join us as we read his private journal from 2,000 years ago and talk about how it makes us feel.
Good morning, Tom.
Morning, Paul.
Hey, how you doing?
Good.
We are, we're gonna do a
little lightning episode, huh?
Yes, we gabbed for a little bit too
long before we press the record button
this morning and we have a little
bit less time than we sometimes do to
record this episode, but that's okay.
I think that's okay.
Yes.
Nothing.
Nothing wrong with yeah,
some of the meditations.
Yes, exactly.
Anything you want to bring up on the pod
before we PSA Don't watch Gladiator two.
Yes, . Do not watch Gladiator two.
I was lu.
I was lured in by the promise of a
mention of meditations, which there is.
But it's a honey trap.
The mention is, yeah, the
mention is poorly executed.
In the, so it's a historical, whatever,
it's a historical depiction of 12 years
after Marcus Aurelius dies, whatever.
And there's a character in it that
says to Marcus Aurelius's daughter,
he's okay, I, I read meditations.
And then he quotes And then the
line was I do not remember the
line because it was not memorable.
It was just, it was not a famous,
as far as I can tell we've been
reading this thing for a while.
It was, it could, you could
have just leafed to any page
and just pointed at a paragraph.
Random text from meditations.
It did not seem, yeah, it didn't
seem famous at all or, I say.
Yeah.
Yikes.
And so just overall, some of the worst
dialogue I've ever seen in a movie.
Oh, yes, I've read Meditations is bad.
Was it published?
No, exactly.
By that name?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
They just did not, nobody cared about
that little voice in your head that's
hold on, this doesn't make sense.
Nobody cared about that voice.
No one cares about convincing
you or making it feel real.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Seems like Ridley Scott has maybe gone.
No one's checking him anymore on
this stuff because like we saw the
Napoleon movie a while back and I would
argue some similar complaints there.
That's a bummer because I think one thing
I like so much about the first gladiator
aside from obviously a really is as a
character is how much the movie was about.
Stoicism, like it Maximus is so much about
here's a manifestation of stoicism, even
aside from the fact that he knows Aurelius
was that component present at all?
No.
Okay.
Yes.
All right.
All of that was seems like too much.
Seems like too much to ask.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, that's a bummer.
Okay.
Noted.
Yes, that's we, we're giving you the
the straight truth on this podcast.
We're not going to lie to you.
We're not going to lie to you
and say that the gladiator two is
great just because it's about the
thing that we're interested in.
It's apparently not.
So I, sacrifice myself for the, yes.
Thank you.
Very noble.
Yeah.
I even I put it down after 15
minutes, I was like surely I
couldn't pick this back up.
And then I just gritted my
teeth and I picked it back up.
Wow.
That's impressive.
I don't know that I have ever done that.
If I, if a movie is sufficiently bad that
I'm putting it down after 15 minutes,
I struggled to think of a case where
I could really work up the resolve
to go back and watch the rest of it.
I did it for the podcast.
Thank you, Paul.
That's much, much appreciated.
All right.
My only news update is we, these are,
this is just, this podcast has just
become Tom reports on the weather
in San Francisco, but we had another
earthquake this morning that I'm like
that now every time I'm like, okay,
gotta talk about, yeah, this one was big.
I thought this one, this is the
biggest earthquake I have felt
ever in my life this morning.
Way more so than the tsunami one
that we talked about a couple weeks
ago, which I didn't feel at all.
This one was much closer
to San Francisco, I think.
So the building really shook.
And then I started reading about the
1906 San Francisco earthquake afterwards,
and really scared myself pretty good.
So that's the mood I'm in this morning,
because I did not realize how massive it
destroyed like 80 percent of the city.
Yeah.
Did like the equivalent of
10 billion worth of damage.
It was insane.
Wow.
How long did it last?
That's a so the shake itself.
That's a good question.
In the case of the 1906 fire, my
understanding from the reading
is that most of the damage was
not done by the shaking itself.
It was because fires broke out
all over the city afterwards that
burned a huge amount of the city.
Yeah, sorry.
I'm talking just about
the one this morning.
Sorry.
Yes, it was.
This one was fast, but
okay, but but intense.
Yes.
I've, I felt other ones where it's
more oh, whoa, several seconds
of slow undulation or whatever.
This one was like, oh, did a
truck just run into my building
or something like that.
And, but then it was over in a second.
Wow.
Yes.
Anyway that's the San
Francisco catastrophic
weather report this week from.
From Tom.
It's a good one.
Okay.
Okay.
Very stoic of you to, consider
your death and move on.
Yes.
Yeah.
I, hard not also to think a little
bit about the wildfires that are
burning in Los Angeles right now.
Yeah.
In a similar vein, which
are pretty sobering.
Intense.
Yeah.
Yes.
Okay.
So let's read a little bit about the
world and what it has for us here.
We are closing in on the
end of book seven, although
in our little bite episode.
We might not get there today,
but definitely in the next
episode, if not this one.
So let's dive in.
Let's do it.
Book seven, entry number 67.
Nature did not blend
things so inextricably.
That you can't draw your own boundaries.
Place your own well
being in your own hands.
It's quite possible to be a good
man without anyone realizing it.
Remember that.
And this too.
You don't need much to live happily.
And just because you've abandoned
your hopes of becoming a great
thinker or scientist, don't give
up on attaining freedom, achieving
humility, serving others, obeying God.
Wow, that's a good one.
Yeah.
I really like this one too.
Although I have helped me piece
through that first sentence.
Nature did not blend things
so inextricably that you can't
draw your own boundaries.
I guess I read that.
I read that as yes, there's
a lot you can't control, but
that doesn't mean you can't.
Live a good life.
Yeah.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I agree with that.
I'm reading it as he talks a lot
about how, we're all, threads in the
same fabric or whatever, and that
the wellbeing of lots of stuff in
the world is tied up in each other.
Yeah.
But his point is that you
could read that as like a.
Oh, no, I have no control
because I am just a helplessly
bound up in everything else.
Yes.
And he's saying, nope, that's not true.
There's this funny, almost
paradoxical quality of you're highly
mixed up with the world, but also
you're in control of yourself.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is wild.
This is such a positive entry.
Yeah, this is such a, I love it.
This is a very actionable,
yeah, pick yourself up.
It's, you can draw your own boundaries.
It's quite possible to be a good
man without anyone realizing.
That one is interesting to me too.
It's quite possible to be a good, it's,
it makes more sense to me, or I guess I'm
maybe I'm being pedantic, but I'm like, it
makes more sense to me along the lines of
something like, it's quite possible to be
a happy man without anyone realizing it.
But to be a good man without anyone
realizing it is a very thought
provoking for me because a lot of
the stuff that he talks about making
you good is about the way you treat
others and are perceived by others.
Yeah.
Where it seems like it would be hard to be
good without realizing it because it would
without anyone realizing it, because, uh,
part of how you become good is by treating
them well, and then they would realize it.
So the scenarios in which you are
a good man without anyone realizing
it, anyone mind you not Yes.
Not a lot of people, but any,
nobody realizes yes, you are a good
man o other than you implicitly.
Yeah.
So being an unpopular emperor.
Yeah, exactly.
That's one example.
Yes.
Okay.
So that way it does seem
a little defensive, maybe.
Yeah.
Yes.
Just because everyone's mad at
you right now, it doesn't mean
you're not doing great, Marcus.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But what's an example?
What's a modern day example
that touches our lives?
Uh, I guess making an
unpopular decision, right?
Or just like a totally unnoticed and
unappreciated one, like the other
thing that comes to mind for me is
just like people whose job it is to
do something reliably that no one pays
attention to, and you just do it over
and over again, and no one thanks you.
Sure, sure.
That seems like Yeah, there's the sort
of, okay, listen I, it's the stereotype
of the kind of Um, reserved dad who, does
the job, is is a good man, but like his
kid is upset because, whatever, maybe like
he's doing his best but it's, people don't
appreciate it or something like that.
Yes.
But for whatever reason, movie.
Yes.
For whatever reason, the profession that
jumped into my head as we were reading
this was somebody like a lighthouse
keeper who just like friggin beam
every night so ships don't run ashore.
No one's coming by to say thanks.
Yeah.
He just has to do it.
It's a, it's great to
have this as a fallback.
It feels like a plan B to you
though, is what you're saying.
I guess there's a lot of things you
can do to be a good person and have
someone, at least someone, realize it.
It's nice if someone realizes it.
It's nice.
Yeah, ideally someone realizes it.
Yes, but even if no one does it's
still quite possible to be a good man.
Yes Yeah, quite possible
is a fun phrasing for this.
Yeah, right quite yes.
Yes, it's not possible.
It's quite possible yeah.
Yeah Fascinating Okay, one more sort
of phrasing thing that I think I know
my opinion on, but I'm just curious
to get your thoughts on just because
you've abandoned your hopes of becoming
a great thinker or scientist, don't
give up on doing all this stuff, right?
I guess I'm reading that.
Do you think Marcus is talking to himself
with is the new Marcus or is the you just
the rhetorical you who is you a person?
100 percent he's talking to himself.
So you think, we've never heard
him talk about his aspirations for
being a great scientist before.
A great thinker, yeah.
Yeah, it's not clear what
scientist meant even back then,
but yeah, I agree that's fair.
But, do we think he doesn't think
of himself as a great thinker?
That has never been a part of
the book before, I feel like.
There has been a strong undercurrent
of he does think he's a great
thinker for a lot of the book.
He's not publishing this, right?
I think that's the point, is he
writes these things in his journal,
but they're not, they're rough.
Ah.
His day job is his day job.
He doesn't have time to do this
passion project on the side.
Okay.
Do you think And so he, yeah, he's
abandoned his hopes of becoming
a great thinker like, one of the
philosophers he so much admires.
So you're reading a great, yeah, so
I think that's a really good point.
There's more than one way of reading
the phrase great thinker, I think.
Which is in some ways great
thinker means celebrated thinker.
Like our great thinkers have been.
Whatever soccer.
Yeah.
Celebrated Socrates and Plato.
That's as opposed to great.
And just more the, 21st century.
Just good at it.
'cause I think as far as pretty, pretty
good at thinking would be hard to
argue that Marcus isn't a that Yeah.
But also doesn't know that he's, that.
Yeah.
No, I'm reading the word great.
As very distinct from the word good.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Yes.
A great thinker, like a one of the greats.
Yes.
So this line is so fascinating
to me because I do think that.
A lot of people I know, myself
included, go through this, where
it's there's a point at which in your
life where you look around and you're
like, all right I'm not a great, like
I didn't, I'm not a great thinker.
I'm not one of the greatest, I
just, I didn't do it like, and it's
probably too could, or it's not.
Probably too late is super dark and sad,
but it's like I'm not really aiming yes,
that's not really my that's not how I'm
setting up my life right now so and I
don't plan to and so what does that mean?
Cuz there was a period of my
life where that was what I that
was yes Put me in the newspaper.
Yeah, right and so his line is don't
give up on attaining freedom achieving
humility Serving others, obeying God.
Yeah.
Awesome.
I dig that too.
Yes.
That's I agree that part is very
resonant for me that it's like,
there's so much he's there's so much
letting go of ego that he's describing
that I think is really lovely that
he's saying yeah, whatever you
think you're all high and mighty.
And eventually the world
teaches you like, Hey, okay.
You're maybe more just
like a normal person.
And then don't let that crush you.
I think is really important advice.
Like you, Yeah, anyway, I don't think
I can say it better than he said it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He said it really well.
Yeah.
It's cool.
Yeah.
Agreed.
Do you think it's quite possible
to be a good man without anyone
realizing it could be a fridge magnet?
It's a weird one.
Yes.
Like you, I it's such a,
it seems, remember that
it almost seems like.
Villains catchphrase to me like it's like
Misunderstood yeah, justifying
being misunderstood to a degree.
That's Maybe too, yes, it seems.
Yeah, it's defensive.
I guess it's my feeling about it.
And so I think I don't want to lead
with that with a fridge magnet.
But
yes, you don't need much to live
Happily is already basically a
fridge mag like that is pretty much
the stuff of all like interior home
decorations in an Airbnb already Yeah.
All right.
This is a good one.
Number 68.
To live life in peace, immune
to all compulsion, let them
scream whatever they want.
Let animals dismember this
soft flesh that covers you.
Nice.
How would any of that stop you from
keeping your mind calm, reliably sizing
up what's around you, and ready to
make good use of whatever happens?
So that judgment can look
the event in the eye and say.
This is what you really are,
regardless of what you may look like.
While adaptability adds, you're
just what I was looking for.
Because to me, the present is a
chance for the exercise of rational
virtue, civic virtue, in short,
the art that men share with gods.
Both treat whatever happens as wholly
natural, not novel or hard to deal
with, but familiar and easily handled.
Oof very Sometimes Marcus,
he's a softie in some ways, but
sometimes he's very badass to me.
And this is one of Marcus is deciding
to be a badass here a little bit.
Let them scream whatever they want.
Yes, let animals dismember this
soft flesh that covers you.
Soft flesh that covers you is a sick line.
It's Pretty intense Marcus.
Oh, man.
How would yeah, how would any of that
stop you from keeping your mind calm?
How could it possibly keep you
yes, yeah stop you from keeping
your mind calm Yeah, this one.
I know it's a little it's a little much.
It's a little much Marcus I guess I
should you know grant him some generosity
just for the gulf of time that divides
us here and the amount of Violence
and whatever that he encountered that
I don't have to deal with But I like
his I can see a couple of ways in
which that might stop me yes, yeah,
my mind might not be quite so calm.
He's not big on giving himself
permission, but that's fine.
Yes.
It's a cool aspiration though, that
he wants He is aspiring to this level
of mastery of himself that is really
Remarkable I think and something that
maybe a lot of people wouldn't even
consider to aspire to I think yeah
in terms of like He just wants to say
that's like it is possible for me To
have a degree of control over myself
that is unbreakable, uninterruptible,
basically no matter what happens.
And I think, the fact that it makes us
a little bit uncomfortable to entertain
that is maybe kind of part of the point.
That's the point.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
I think we should always give him
I always think he's just writing.
This is just a state, like a classic
waiter journal where you write
in extremes to find the truth.
Yeah.
My favorite line here, Tom, is
while adaptability ads, you're
just what I was looking for.
Let's talk about that.
Yes.
I think I get what that means.
I really, yeah.
So I didn't make this clear in the
reading, but he is personifying
both judgment and adaptability.
In this entry, they're written here with
capital J and capital a which is cool.
He hasn't really done that before
with the virtues that I can remember.
But I love this line.
I love this.
So imagine me presented with any
bad situation and what does he say?
You can look the events in the
eye and say, you're just, yes.
Looking for.
I think, yes, I agree.
That's really cool.
That is a, I You were making the point
about how positive he was being earlier.
This is another, yeah.
That's so empowering.
Another example of that where he's
okay, something bad's happening.
Yeah.
You've got your two friends with you
whose names are judgment and adaptability.
Yeah.
And you are capable of behaving in
such a way that judgment's yep, got it.
That's what you're like,
we know what you're like.
This is what, this is
how you always behave.
And then adaptability is your
positive friend who's just nice.
Yes.
Let's go.
This is huge.
Let's do it.
This is exactly what you were looking for.
Yes.
It's awesome.
Imagine having those two.
Yes.
Standing next to you.
Any bad situation.
Yeah.
It would be awesome.
That's what you need.
Yeah.
It's a very empowering perspective
of, yes, this all of life is just a
sequence of opportunities like that.
Yeah.
Perspective.
Yeah, Tom, I'm going to
pause you for a second.
Yes, I'm good.
Okay, I'm about to say something.
Okay, fine.
Go ahead.
Here's my tangent.
And it's related to gladiator too,
which I sincerely hope no one other
than me in the world ever has to watch.
Please don't watch.
Okay.
But there is a scene in it.
Okay.
This is where I stopped to watch
things after 15 minutes where like the
Romans are invading Carthage, right?
Or like they're it.
They don't they're not putting those
words on it, but that's what's happening.
Okay, and There's a scene where you know
protagonist is like the whatever the
hero he's like He's on the carthage side.
And so he's like trying to rally
the troops with a speech and
the speech is so Comically bad.
I like couldn't I just like I had to
stop so the speech is basically Okay, I'm
not going to do a full justice, but it's
something along the lines of these Romans,
they think they can just come and pillage
and flatten whatever city they enter.
I like, and that's what they do.
They pillage and they flatten.
And then it just like, and that's it.
That's the end of the speech.
I see.
Okay.
I'm like, if I'm hearing that
speech, the takeaway is they're
going to pillage and flatten us.
Yes.
Am I riled up?
Like it was supposed to, it's so funny
cause I can see the logic of the movie
script writer where they're trying
to convey the sense of ah, the Romans
okay, we need to tell, we need to
tell the viewer that what's happening.
Okay.
The Romans are coming.
Oh, we need to tell them
that Romans are scary.
We need to preview that
the, they're going to win.
But it's like the worst possible
motivating speech I've ever heard.
That's such a shame because even on this
podcast, we talked about the totally
analogous scene right at the beginning
of the first gladiator, where Maximus
gives a speech to rile up before they
fight the dramatic tribes and it rules.
It's so good.
If you find yourself.
Yes.
Loading fields of green and there's
a sweet smell on the breeze.
No worries.
Don't be alarmed.
Yes, exactly.
Yes.
That rules.
Oh, it was so good.
And this entry would be so much
better than the speech they give.
Yeah, this one might be a little
long for I guess that movie is
three hours long now, right?
They probably have time for it.
They had time for this.
Yeah.
They had time.
I just read meditation.
I would have preferred.
I just read meditations chapter 7 68 yes
read it and that would be so much better.
Yeah Sorry for the tangent.
No, that's it.
Okay I was just gonna say this
is you know, I've said this
before but this kind of entry
It's the thing you were describing
where he is journaling and extremes
here a little bit He's you know, the
idea of encountering every single thing
that you don't like in your life with
this perspective of oh, yes Let me
just consult judgment and adaptability
basically is really attractive in theory.
Yeah, in practice, again, Marcus
doesn't necessarily need, I'm not
saying he needs to do a prescriptive
thing, but I just want to carve out
space for, I think, it's not as simple
as this entry makes it sound, at
least for me in practice, I think.
Yeah, it's tough if your kid gets
hit by a bus to be like, you're
just what I was looking for.
Yes, perfect, yes, what an
opportunity for me to adapt.
The presence is a chance for the exercise
of rational virtue, civic virtue.
Eventually you can get there, but let,
it's okay to grieve and go through
a few stages before you get there.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, so there's a question of how
to use this philosophy a little bit.
Yeah, and I think it's more You can at
times do it in the present, but mostly
it's more of this kind of like type two
slow thinking thing about understanding
your own life and how you react in certain
moments and in situations where you can
take a while to decide how you feel.
This is a really helpful way
of thinking, but in situations
where you really have just.
Everyone's screaming at you.
To me, it's hard to engage in the kind
of thinking where this is accessible.
Yeah, let members, let animals dismember
the soft flesh that covers you.
Like in that moment, it's tough to say.
Yes.
Oh yes.
What an opportunity to adapt.
Yes.
Yeah.
Okay.
Number 69.
Perfection of character, colon.
To live your last day, every day,
without frenzy or sloth or pretense.
Cool.
Good one.
Yeah.
Hard.
Yeah.
Hard.
Hard to argue.
Those are interesting words.
The words are good.
Frenzy.
Frenzy is a fun English word that not a
lot of modern writers would use there.
But yes, it's your last day, but don't
be a maniac, but also don't do nothing.
Don't do nothing.
Don't lay around and don't
make it all about you.
It's still just.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Agreed.
Marcus.
That's, that's good stuff.
I could probably categorize all my
days in one of these three classes.
One of these three, yes.
Yeah, I'm trying to think of a day
where I didn't do, not just one, but
probably all three of those things.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Every day I could easily categorize.
Yes.
This is a mutually exclusive, collectively
exhaustive list of how my days work.
I don't know if they're mutually
exclusive, but yes, they're
definitely collectively exhaustive.
Collectively exhaustive.
That's true.
That's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good point.
Yes.
Yeah, but it's a nice little entry
because yeah, it's hard to add much
to it that it's just sometimes his
entries are wordy and bulky, but
this one is just a little pearl.
I feel like hard to argue with
a single word here or really
want to add anything to it.
Number 70.
The gods live forever, and yet
they don't seem annoyed at having
to put up with human beings and
their behavior throughout eternity.
And not only put up with,
but actively care for them.
And you, on the verge of death,
you still refuse to care for them.
Although you're one of them yourself.
Wow.
So he, there's a lot of interesting
god stuff going on in meditations
where Yeah, it's hard for me to
penetrate because so he so this is
fascinating because he's like asking
To put ourselves in the gods shoes for
a bit and feel some empathy for them.
Yeah, and that like it's it's tough
it's we're supposed to feel bad for gods
that they get to live forever Yes, they
have to put up, they have to put up with
us forever is Marcus's point, right?
And so we're supposed to read that and
be like, oh that must be really hard.
God Yeah, think about how much that
would have to, that would suck.
Being a god.
To be a god and live forever and
have to deal With these puny humans.
Yeah, it's a very deep thought like for
someone to read this and be like, oh,
yes It would be annoying to live forever
Yes, that's like a leap in itself.
I mean it's it speaks to me to who's
having this thought other than Marcus
like exactly you know the old loneliest
man in the world thing from the
Lecture we watched but yes, here's a
guy who has very few people Who he can
really empathize with because he's so
different from everyone else alive.
So he's, he looks to the gods and be like
can I find some empathy for these guys?
Can I, my, my situation has
some similarity with theirs.
Let's, let me think for a second about
what it would be like to be them.
And the first thing that comes to mind
for him is you know how I'm annoyed
by dealing with humans all the time?
They have that problem times
infinity because they don't,
it doesn't get to end for them.
Exactly.
It's fascinating.
It's also funny, like the reaction
I had the next line, not only put
up with, but actively care for them.
My reaction to that was
they don't really care.
Yes.
How much active work does he
think they're doing to care?
His whole thing is that I guess
he believes that everything
happens for a reason and it's
all fate and it's all good.
And just because it's bad for you,
doesn't mean it's bad for the world.
So maybe that's what he means.
Yeah.
He thinks that the gods are like
actively managing everything.
Yes.
Yeah.
I guess I, and maybe this is totally
wrong, I, my concept of his religion is
that it's less like a sort of faded Oh,
every single thing has its divine reason.
And more like a, The way the gods
take care of human beings is by
making sure the sun still rises
and the ocean still is there.
And they just, they care for humans by
doing the work of maintaining the world,
but not necessarily tinkering with every
single event that happens to humans.
Interesting.
That's generous.
I guess my understanding of the lore of,
they're just constantly screwing around
and Yes they're little rascals too, is my
understanding, but unlike other religions
where there's more of the sense that
they create each, that any one of them
has like an unlimited amount of power.
My, my read on the mythology here
is that they all just control
different parts of the world,
but no one has to get the oceans.
Yeah, make sure that
tide the tide happens.
Yeah.
So all the shenanigans
are like after hours.
Yeah, so it's a little weird to
phrase that as actively caring
for humans, because it's more like
they indirectly care for humans by
maintaining the world, maybe my reading's
not right there, but Interesting.
Yes.
I am very interested in the same
way that like, yeah, penetrating
that, his understanding of religion
would be really interesting.
Yes, it is one place where Yes, it is
one place where probably if we just I
wish we knew more about the subject.
We would have, we would
be smarter about it.
But yeah, we don't.
So here we are.
There is also the, he does this
sort of thing periodically where
he's accusatory towards himself.
He's doing that at the end of this entry.
You still refuse to care for
them, he says to himself.
We don't know what he's talking about, but
yeah, there's so much in these pages that
is clear evidence that he does care a lot
about people and wants to do well by them.
And he thinks there's no
higher calling for humans.
Sometimes that's hard for me to square.
I wonder what is he angry at himself for
in terms of refusing to care for people?
All of this seems like evidence that
he cares quite a lot about them.
I agree.
That one.
Yeah.
Huh.
Reads either like a, sort of
an exaggeration for the sake of
argument or something happened
and we just have no visibility.
Yeah, okay.
I guess it could also be
the rhetorical you again.
He's just he's saying
whatever some people.
Yeah, okay, but yeah, okay I guess
we're generously you can read it as
that last sentence is just about how
like Given that how can you have any
excuse in any moment for not caring
for people the gods have to do it
every day Forever and here you yes, and
you're just yeah It's a weird argument.
I don't, I'm not very convinced.
Let me put it this way.
I'm not super convinced by this one.
Yeah it's book seven, entry 70.
You got like He's trying every angle.
Yeah, it's a lab.
It's a laboratory.
Put yourself in the god's shoes.
Yeah.
They're not all gonna totally hit.
And this one, it's interesting.
Yeah.
Okay, number 71.
It's silly to try to escape
other people's faults.
They are inescapable.
Just try to escape your own.
Nice.
I love other any time the word other,
the term other people comes up,
it's always great, always lovely.
Yes, there's nothing, we don't
hear anything about other
people's virtues, really.
Yes, if we hear the phrase other
people, we're about to hear
about how annoying they are.
Marcus is extremely annoyed
with other humans all the time.
Yeah, for sure.
But I think this is good.
I think it's, yeah I believe it.
And it's you can't change people
just like you can handle how you
react to the world around you.
Yeah.
Yeah, so I dig it.
Just try to escape your, he's
being funny in a way too.
Like he's, I think, or at least this
reads to me as a slightly humorous.
Entry almost oh the irony of everyone
makes mistakes including you.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly There's a little
bit of it feels like his tongue
is in his cheek a little bit.
Yeah, that's a good reading one thought
I had as we keep going here is yeah
There's an analogy here that like Marcus.
He's not this isn't a fully edited book or
whatever What he's doing is he's it's like
a sculptor like an ancient when you're
sculpting something out of marble Yeah.
Or whatever.
You start with a big block and you have
to chip hammer away chip pieces until you
can eventually, have the Statue of David.
Yeah.
Every one of these entries is like a chip.
Yeah.
He's trying at different angles and
eventually, if we get through it Yes.
Audience members.
And Tom.
Yes.
If we get through it, we
will see David in the flesh.
There's a David, there's
a David at the end.
Yes.
Yes.
But sometimes you look at a
chip and you're like, what?
It's I don't know what that is.
Yeah, exactly.
That was starting to look like
a head, but now it doesn't
because of the chip you made.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yes.
Yes.
I like that metaphor for the way this book
works because yes it's not as literal.
art forms or like other books
would be in terms of the way the
pieces are adding up to the whole.
It is more like the indirectness or
the sort of like the weird way it's
just repeated motion over and you
just have to chip to the leg, and
the leg is really deep in there.
So you're going to need a lot of chips.
Yes, I bet that amazingly like each
chip on its own looks like such a stupid
thing But amazingly somehow the whole was
way more than the sum of let's hope so.
Yeah That's yeah, I think so.
Yes.
Yeah, that's a nice way
of thinking about it.
I think maybe we should leave it there
I think that's a good thought for us
to end on right there And what that
means is that we can promise with 100
percent certainty that the next episode
will be the last episode Book seven.
We are so close.
Is that's one of our new
year's resolutions, right?
That was one of our, okay.
Yes.
Okay.
That one, we could have probably
been a little bit more ambitious and
because today's only January 10th,
but yes we're going to make it.
And yes.
So we'll see what book eight
and the future have in store
for us starting next episode.
All right.
Bye bye.
Looking forward to it.
Bye.