1: Seneca (Was) On Time

     As mentioned in my previous blog post, I am embarking on a series of posts on Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman politician/dramatist/philosopher who lived in the first century AD/CE. Readers of this blog will recall that two of my prior posts pertained to Seneca: one on anger, based on his treatise of the same name (11/9/17); the other on insults, based on his essay On the Constancy of the Wise Person (12/2/17).

     My project has been made easier by a series of new translations of Seneca's works published by the University of Chicago Press. Included in the series is an excellent translation of Seneca's Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long. Gaius Lucilius Iunior -- to whom the Letters are addressed -- was a younger friend of Seneca's who (like him) was a writer who also served in government. Although each of the 124 individual letters begins with a salutation to Lucilius, Seneca clearly intended that they reach a larger audience.

     I believe that what makes a thinker from the past relevant today (among other factors) is whether or not what he or she had to say is still applicable to modern concerns. In recent years, "Mindfulness" has become a popular topic -- just enter the word in your favorite Internet search engine -- spawning books and magazines and websites. Originally an ancient Buddhist teaching, mindfulness in its modern incarnation focuses on paying close attention to, and living in, the present moment. Along these lines, note the following from Seneca's first letter to Lucilius:
          "And so, dear Lucilius, do what your letter says you are doing: embrace every hour. If you lay hands on today, you will find you are less dependent on tomorrow. While you delay, life speeds by. Everything we have belongs to others, Lucilius; time alone is ours. Nature has put us in possession of this one thing, this fleeting, slippery thing -- and anyone who wants to can dispossess us. Such is the foolishness of mortal beings: when they borrow the smallest, cheapest items, such as can easily be replaced, they acknowledge the debt, but no one considers himself indebted for taking up our time. Yet this is the one loan that even those who are grateful cannot repay. "  

     As this passage shows, another thing that makes Seneca worth reading today -- 2,000 years after his death -- is the quality of his writing.
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References:

    Seneca, Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2015), Letter 1, 2-3, page 25; see also pages 1-3.