Some days, getting out of bed is a struggle of epic proportions. The days when I'm working early, and I have to get up around 3am, those days are the easiest. I simply have no choice but to get out of bed and get ready for work. The difficult days are when I have a flexible schedule for the day (i.e. most days). I've always imagined that this is a fairly common human experience across geography and culture, but I hadn't considered the commonality of this experience from a chronological perspective (i.e. across time).
Marcus Aurelius (aka. Marcus Aurelius Antonius Augustus) was a 2nd century Emperor of the Roman Empire and Stoic philosopher. Apparently even he had difficulty getting out of bed in the morning:
"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work - as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if going to do what I was born for - the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?
- But it's nicer here...
So you were born to feel 'nice'? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don't you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks putting the world in order, as best they can? Are you not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren't you running to do what your nature demands." (Meditations, V.1)
I quite enjoy this little mock conversation he is having with himself about getting out of those warm blankets in the morning. This guy had a giant empire to run and even he had to argue himself out of bed once and a while. I don't feel so bad about those mornings when I have similar conversations with myself. I think he's right though, we do have a task set before us each day, a task that requires our attention (and requires that we get out of bed). I guess even those silly stoic philosophers got a few things right.
I likey.
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