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December 12th

THE BEAT GOES ON

“Walk the long gallery of the past, of empires and kingdoms

succeeding each other without number. And you can also see the

future, for surely it will be exactly the same, unable to deviate

from the present rhythm. It’s all one whether we’ve experienced

forty years or an aeon. What more is there to see?”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.49

ll things die. Not just people but companies, kingdoms, religions, and
ideas—eventually. The Roman Republic lasted 450 years. The Roman
Empire, of which Marcus Aurelius was considered to be one of the “five
good emperors,” lasted 500 years. The longest recorded life of a human
being is 122 years. The average life expectancy in the United States is a
little over seventy-eight years. In other countries, in other eras, it has been
more and it has been less. But in the end, we all succumb, as Marcus said,
to the rhythm of events—of which there is always a final, determined beat.
There is no need to dwell on this fact, but there is no point in ignoring it
either.