Marcus Aurelius's meditations

So I recently started reading some of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, written between 170 and 180 CEby...Marcus Aurelius. More on those later, first, some history:

If anyone has watched "Gladiator" with Russell Crowe, they know a couple of things. First, Commodus was a conniving evil bastard who kills his father (the great Marcus Aurelius) and becomes emperor, then along comes a Gladiator, who kills Commodus and returns Rome to a republic. This is not true. This is what I would call "Operation Iraqi Freedom in Rome" Staring Russell Crowe as the savior and that thing on Russell Crowe's forehead as the adorable sidekick. The two of them travel through an ancient dictator ship, seduce a pretty lady with curly hair and then deliver democracy to the struggling nation.

Here is a slightly more reasonable story. Marcus Aurelius was a good emperor (in fact he is considered the final of the "five good emperors" of Rome.) However he was a little more virile than the preceding emperors, and had some sons, including his heir, Commodus. When Commodus was 14, he became a man, and when he was 16, Marcus Aurelius raised him to "imperator" and ruled side by side until Marcus died. Then Commodus became Emperor. After Commodus came Pertinax, then Didius Julianus, then Septimius Severus, and so on and so forth...no Republic in sight, and no Spanish Gladiator to dethrone him.

So, back to the Meditations. Marcus Aurelius was considered a philosopher-emperor and wrote extensively relating to his philisophy: Stoicism. Every once in a while I find a meditation I find sort of confusing and a little interesting. Like the one today from book 10:

A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and another when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians. Are not these robbers, if thou examinest their opinions?

Pretty large jump to go from catching a fly, a hare, a bear, and then bam! The Sarmatians. The ancient race that inhabited the land that is now Iran. Wow, quite a jump

Stoicism does not promote personal glory. It remarks how proud animals/people may be when they capture something, but in the end, they are just robbers. Intersting idea, but still, I would argue that the instinct that drives a spider to capture the fly is vastly different than the human instinct to conquer a neighboring territory, even if the end result is just one party "robbing" the life of the other.

Video games

I have a PS2 that I got for free for helping a friend move. I have 5 video games. I enjoy playing them from time to time, but inevitably, upon finishing an hour or 20 of staring at the tv screen immersed in what is a made up world, I feel empty. I feel like I just ate an entire bowl of jello, slightly full but really really unfulfilled, and kind of sick. Escaping into imaginary worlds is a fun exercise and I try to do it often, however video games are someone elses imagination. How can you imagine what it looks like to drive at 200 mph, when someone else has provided the sights and sounds...all you have to provide is the imaginary smell, taste, and feel; it smells and tastes like cherry and feels like cubified snot.

Some games have you enjoying adventures through mystical lands, but most have you racing other players, or shooting faceless enemies. Personal interaction consists of yelling obscenities over your headset (if you're playing multiplayer) or at the AI "enemies" as they mercilessly ruin precious minutes of "progress" that you made through a digital maze.

I did some reading this morning on a video game called Red Dead Redemption. It's a story about a guy in the old west who can be good or evil and can pretty much do whatever he wants. He can explore the vast prairie and search for treasure, or shoot prostitutes and skin cows, the choices are endless. I pasted a trailer below, and I have to admit I am tempted to play. But the reviews talk about "endless replayability" and how one reviewer "spent 6 hours just exploring the landscape".

Last weekend I spent 2 hours exploring the woods on my bike. I got a tick, I lost my gloves, and as it was my first "longer" mountain bike ride of the year (no comments super-Trish), my legs felt like rubber the next day. I've ridden in those woods literally dozens of times. I know almost every path, but on Saturday I met Morgan, an Autralian Shepherd with a great personality (she is a dog.) It was the best 10 minutes of my ride. When I got back to the parking lot, I drove home and sat down on the couch with a beer. I looked at my dusty ps2, contemplated upgrading to a ps3 and instead started stretching, because the next day was time for some water polo, or in other words, yelling obscenities at others in real life and I wanted to win.