Friday, October 27, 2017

Commentary on Meditations: B6:49

You do not resent your weight, do you - that you weigh only so many pounds and not three hundred? So why resent either a life-span of so many years and not more? Just as you are content with the amount of matter allocated to you, so you should be content with your allocation of time.

Tied to the discipline of desire and acceptance, Marcus admonishs himself to love his allotment in life in the form of his body. Marcus counsels himself that some things, such as weight or height, are simply not up to him.  His weight and height do not cause him anxiety.  How many years he will live - that too is not up to him.  So if he is not worried about his weight or height, he should not worry about how many years or months or days he has left to live.

A note about weight.  Some might assert a person's weight is, to a large extent, up to them.  Indeed, a person can manipulate their weight up or down.  For me, I can gain pounds so quickly over so little food, it's shocking.  Other people can eat 13 spare ribs and even junk food and not put on an ounce.  I've even known a couple of guys who are sad they can never put on pounds.  So, even though weight can be manipulated, there are still limits.  Eventually you die of some ailment if you put on too much weight (so there is an upper limit you cannot control) and eventually you die if you weigh too little (so there is a lower limit you cannot control).  In Marcus’s day, weight was more like height  - it largely did not fluctuate and there was not much control over it.

My point: don't focus on the argument that someone can change their weight, rather, focus on the larger point that Marcus didn't fret over his weight so he should not fret over how many years he has left in life.  Don't lose sight of the forest by only looking at a tree.

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