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July 16th

PROGRESS OF THE SOUL

“To what service is my soul committed? Constantly ask yourself

this and thoroughly examine yourself by seeing how you relate to

that part called the ruling principle. Whose soul do I have now?

Do I have that of a child, a youth... a tyrant, a pet, or a wild

animal?”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.11

o what are you committed? What cause, what mission, what purpose?
What are you doing? And more important, why are you doing it? How
does what you do every day reflect, in some way, the values you claim to
care about? Are you acting in a way that’s consistent with something you
value, or are you wandering, unmoored to anything other than your own
ambition?
When you examine these questions, you might be uncomfortable with
the answers. That’s good. That means you’ve taken the first step to
correcting your behavior—to being better than those wild creatures Marcus
mentions. It also means you’re closer to discovering what your duty calls
you to do in life. And once you discover it, you’ve moved a little bit closer
to fulfilling it.