I

April   29th

WASHING AWAY    THE DUST    OF  LIFE

“Watch  the stars   in  their   courses and imagine yourself    running alongside   them.   Think   constantly  on

the changes of  the elements    into    each    other,  for such    thoughts    wash    away    the dust    of  earthly life.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    7.47

t is almost impossible to stare up at the stars and not feel something. As cosmologist Neil deGrasse
Tyson has explained, the cosmos fills us with complicated emotions. On the one hand, we feel an
infinitesimal smallness in comparison to the vast universe; on the other, an extreme connectedness to this
larger whole.
Obviously, given that we’re in our bodies every day, it’s tempting to think that’s the most important
thing in the world. But we counteract that bias by looking at nature—at things much bigger than us. A line
from Seneca, which has since become a proverb, expresses Marcus’s insight well: Mundus ipse est
ingens deorum omnium templum (The world itself is a huge temple of all the gods).
Looking at the beautiful expanse of the sky is an antidote to the nagging pettiness of earthly concerns.
And it is good and sobering to lose yourself in that as often as you can.