Much like in Roman times, we find ourselves asking where all the time went in our lives. The time we spend in life is splintered into an array of activities. Work, sports, social activities, sloth, ambition, greed to name a few, and the list could extend to infinity.

On The Shortness of Life, Seneca points out that life isn’t short, but that we waste much of it, even in our modern age where so much of what we do can be completed in a fraction of time compared to the past.

“Some have no objective at all which to aim but are overtaken by fate as they gape and yawn”. We go about our lives without any solid direction. As a matter of fact, we are held ransom by the various desires in our heart. In this context, “desires” isn’t meant as sin, but as the excesses of our own prosperity. How many times have we worked ourselves to exhaustion? How many times are we robbed of our time for the sake of business, and have too many obligations to allow time for ourselves?

Philosophy has so often been read, but not really ever applied. Given our mortal and corruptible nature, it’s tragic because instead of making the best of  history, and what we’ve learned over the ages, we often forget the most simple, basic, and useful observations that were made millennia ago. I recently picked up a book and was immediately enthralled with it. It’s called the Stoic Philosophy of Seneca translated by Moses Hadas.