I

December    18th

WHAT    COMES   TO  US  ALL

“Both   Alexander   the Great   and his mule-keeper were    both    brought to  the same    place   by  death—

they    were    either  received    into    the all-generative  reason, or  scattered   among   the atoms.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    6.24

n a world that is in many ways becoming more and more unequal, there aren’t many truly equalitarian
experiences left. When Benjamin Franklin observed that “in this world nothing can be said to be
certain, except death and taxes,” he couldn’t have known how good some people would get at avoiding
their taxes. But death? That’s still the one thing that everyone experiences.
We all face the same end. Whether you conquer the known world or shine the shoes of the people who
do, at the end death will be a radical equalizer—a lesson in abject humility. Shakespeare had Hamlet
trace out the logic in stark terms for both Alexander and Julius Caesar:

“Imperious  Caesar, dead    and turn’d  to  clay,

Might   stop    a   hole    to  keep    the wind    away:

O,  that    that    earth,  which   kept    the world   in  awe,

Should  patch   a   wall    to  expel   the winter  flaw!”

The next time you feel yourself getting high and mighty—or conversely, feeling low and inferior—just
remember, we all end up the same way. In death, no one is better, no one is worse. All our stories have
the same finale.