- To my soul:
Are you ever going to achieve goodness? Ever going to be
simple, whole, and naked—as plain to see as the body that
contains you? Know what an affectionate and loving
disposition would feel like? Ever be fulfilled, ever stop
desiring—lusting and longing for people and things to enjoy?
Or for more time to enjoy them? Or for some other place or
country—“a more temperate clime”? Or for people easier to
get along with? And instead be satisfied with what you have,
and accept the present—all of it. And convince yourself that
everything is the gift of the gods, that things are good and
always will be, whatever they decide and have in store for
the preservation of that perfect entity—good and just and
beautiful, creating all things, connecting and embracing them,
and gathering in their separated fragments to create more like
them.
Will you ever take your stand as a fellow citizen with gods
and human beings, blaming no one, deserving no one’s