Marcus Aurelius - a useful guide to life

Dear Diary,

I was in that... place again, and was not looking forward to slaving for those brutish beasts, scarcely human. I read, and I mean I read a lot. You might say that reading books, writing books and translating books is my 'thing'. Were you to come into my apartment, all you would see is books (and in the corner some musical instruments, and my little dog Ronulus Latrator 'Ronnie Barker'). That's it. I spend most all the money I earn on books. So, today I thought I would read Marcus Aurelius' To Myself (commonly translated as 'Meditations'). My Ancient Greek is not as good as my Latin, so I am reading it in translation (I have half a dozen or so different translations of it). I am reading his letters to himself in order and this is the passage I read immediately before going to work:

For such a man, who no longer postpones his endeavour to take his place among the best, is indeed a priest and servant of the gods, behaving rightly towards the deity stationed within him, so ensuring that the moral being remains unpolluted by pleasures, invulnerable to every pain, untouched by any wrong, unconscious of any evil, a wrestler in the great contest of all, never to be overthrown by any passion, deeply steeped in justice, welcoming with his whole heart all that comes about and is allotted to him, and never, save under some great necessity and for the good of his fellows, giving thought to what another is saying or doing or thinking. For he devotes himself solely to the realisation of his own duty, and is always mindful of what is assigned to him from the whole; and he fulfils his duty through fine deeds, and is convinced that whatever is allotted to him is good; for fate assigned to each person accompanies him through life and is only to his benefit.
From Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 3.4 translated by Robin Hard (2011, p.18 [Oxford World's Classics]).

Work went well, without a hitch.

There are many other passages from within this same book which are just as instrumental. Okay, sure, this is a nation of beggars, paupers and slaves (certainly since the widening division between rich and poor is readily apparent since the 2008 crash and its fallout [evidence for this can be found here], and even more so since the Neo-Plague has swept the world - the biggest transfer of wealth in history, with millions of smaller businesses being hit hard and the corporations creaming off more and more profits). Therefore, even if all you can do with your master's degree in Classical Latin in Dark Age Britain is unskilled labour for minimum wage (or volunteer 'work' - that's if you're lucky - which is slavery, however you dress it up), it doesn't matter. There is a big wide world out there, so one should be philosophical, not only about not having any life worth living at all, but also about death - which is as nothing to a true philosopher.

Max.