溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Soon We Forget Everything — So What Must We Do Now?
I will forget all and be forgotten by all — so what reason remains to do right now?
Near is your forgetting of all things, and near the forgetting of you by all.
Aurelius's reflection that "all is soon forgotten" opened the question of how to live before the necessity of oblivion. From it the Stoics drew the answer: cut off the craving for approval and fame, and focus on virtue now. Epicurus, similarly, said not to worry over posthumous reputation but to enjoy present calm. Later humanism and Romanticism, by contrast, saw creation against oblivion as human dignity, holding that art and greatness are born from the struggle not to be forgotten. Before oblivion, must we serenely live the now, or create something against it? The question still divides the wisdom of letting go from the will to leave a mark.
In an age where the craving to leave a mark and be recognized drives life on, Aurelius's question — soon all is forgotten, so what will you do now — returns us to a pure present.
Aurelius faces the double truth of forgetting: I too will one day forget all things, and be forgotten by all.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Aurelius faces the double truth of forgetting: I too will one day forget all things, and be forgotten by all. Yet from this emptiness he draws not despair but clarity. If all will be forgotten anyway, there is no reason to chase others' approval, so only doing what is right now remains. I feel this paradox is the firmest answer to what we leave. When I set down the calculation of leaving something, I can, precisely then, live the now purely. What remains when I do not strain to leave anything? Admitting my own forgetting, I stand before today's rightness.
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