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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.