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November 26th

THE ALTAR OF NO DIFFERENCE

“We are like many pellets of incense falling on the same altar. Some

collapse sooner, others later, but it makes no difference.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.15

hat’s the difference between you and the richest person in the world?
One has a little more money than the other. What’s the difference
between you and the oldest person in the world? One has been around a
little longer than the other. Same goes for the tallest, smartest, fastest, and
on down the line.
Measuring ourselves against other people makes acceptance difficult,
because we want what they have, or we want how things could have gone,
not what we happen to have. But that makes no difference.
Some might see this line from Marcus as pessimistic, whereas others see
it as optimistic. It’s really just truth. We’re all here and we’re all going to
leave this earth eventually, so let’s not concern ourselves with petty
differences in the meantime. We have too much to do.