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August  1st

DON’T   GO  EXPECTING   PERFECTION

“That   cucumber    is  bitter, so  toss    it  out!    There   are thorns  on  the path,   then    keep    away!   Enough

said.   Why ponder  the existence   of  nuisance?   Such    thinking    would   make    you a   laughing-stock  to

the true    student of  Nature, just    as  a   carpenter   or  cobbler would   laugh   if  you pointed out the

sawdust and chips   on  the floors  of  their   shops.  Yet while   those   shopkeepers have    dustbins    for

disposal,   Nature  has no  need    of  them.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    8.50

e want things to go perfectly, so we tell ourselves that we’ll get started once the conditions are
right, or once we have our bearings. When, really, it’d be better to focus on making do with how
things actually are.
Marcus reminded himself: “Don’t await the perfection of Plato’s Republic.” He wasn’t expecting the
world to be exactly the way he wanted it to be, but Marcus knew instinctively, as the Catholic philosopher
Josef Pieper would later write, that “he alone can do good who knows what things are like and what their
situation is.”
Today, we won’t let our honest understanding of the world stop us from trying to make the best of it.
Nor will we let petty annoyances and minor obstacles get in the way of the important job we have to do.