I’m reading Meditations by Marcus Aurellius. I’ve been reading this book for the last three years constantly, I read it slowly, when I finish it I just start all over again. I see this book as a pile of reminders about what life is about, gentle reminders. Stoicism in general is good for my health, that’s for sure. In one paragraph Marcus Aurellius writes that the important things is not how long a man lives, but for how long can he manage to preserve his ability to think right - the ability to manage his thoughts, to be aware of his duties and his role in this world, to think critically about processes that are happening inside of him - to be introspective. This paragraph made me stop and think about how I feel about getting old. I do fear becoming old, but what I fear is the physical aspect of it, I fear my body becoming saggy, losing its functions, but I have never thought about the fact that there is also my mind that is inevitably becoming old. Does an old mind mean wise mind? I don’t think so. I think an old mind is just a mind that stopped being as flexible as it was when it was younger, while a wise mind is still flexible but rather more picky about the ways it shows this flexibility on the outside. I don’t know. But I do know that I don’t want my mind to become saggy before my body does.

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