What Am I, Really?

Get ready for more musings from an old man, at the end of another year. I have been re-reading Meditations again, and 2021 was certainly a year to consider Marcus Aurelius and his musings. He begins Book Two with the famous: "Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the meddling, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial." Well, we all do a lot of that, don't we? And, looking at our political leaders, of all stripes, we certainly have some experience. But, rather than counsel action against the barbarians, Marcus counsels us to patiently concentrate on the only thing we can control, our reactions. He counsels us to cooperate with them, in whatever way we can. He counsels us to consider that we "...as if you were now dying, despise the flesh; it is blood and bones and a network , a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries." But, our brain, our "ruling part", he asks us to "...consider this: You are an old man; no longer let yourself be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to social movements, no longer either be dissatisfied with the present, or shrink from the future". Thanks, Marcus. What am I, really? I am that old man, and I finally recognize that no politician, no meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, or otherwise unwise person, no social movement, no slight, and no event, can ever again pull my strings like a puppet. I am my own counsel, and I counsel a quiet journey to my death, with life in every breath, and patience for every fellow human. What are you, today?