240105 What I learned in my studies this morning 4

Sliding from moments
Into holes none can open
Life is an instant.

Today's Meditation(s):

Meditations 2.14 (Waterfield)

Marcus writes about death a lot. Considering his health (weak since birth, never robust in his best days) and circumstances (living in military camps for years in his later days, when the Meditations were written), this isn't surprising.  Given my dad's declining health over the past several months, it's been on my mind as well.

In this passage, the Emperor argues that Death is not frightening because no matter what the circumstances, you can only lose one, infinitesimal, thing: now.*

The Past doesn't exist. It did, but it doesn't now.  It's not real (anymore) even if its effects are still around us.

The Future doesn't exist. It may, but it doesn't now. It's not real (yet, if ever) even if tiny slices are continually falling from it through the now and into the Past.

I wish I might help my dad think of Death in philosophical terms like this, but it's not possible at this point.  That said, I don't think he's particularly afraid of death.  Impatient might be a better word.

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* (The Emperor also discusses the idea of Eternal Recurrence.  As part of Stoic physics, which has been supplanted with more accurate knowledge, I don't buy it.  Since their physics was inaccurate, these references [almost] always end up essentially ignored as I read.)