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December    13th

IT’S    JUST    A   NUMBER

“You    aren’t  bothered,   are you,    because you weigh   a   certain amount  and not twice   as  much?   So

why get worked  up  that    you’ve  been    given   a   certain lifespan    and not more?   Just    as  you are

satisfied   with    your    normal  weight, so  you should  be  with    the time    you’ve  been    given.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    6.49

hey say age is just a number, but to some people it’s a very important one—otherwise, women
wouldn’t lie about being younger, and ambitious young men wouldn’t lie about being older. Rich
people and health nuts spend billions of dollars in an effort to move the expiration date from around
seventy-eight years to hopefully forever.
The number of years we manage to eke out doesn’t matter, only what those years are composed of.
Seneca put it best when he said, “Life is long if you know how to use it.” Sadly, most people don’t—they
waste the life they’ve been given. Only when it is too late do they try to compensate for that waste by
vainly hoping to put more time on the clock.
Use today. Use every day. Make yourself satisfied with what you have been given.