“Why are people so bitter, Paulinus? Nature has been good to us, not cruel. A life well spent can truly be a long life.
But many men are governed by insatiable greed, or by a life devoted to meaningless tasks. Some turn to drink, others are paralyzed by laziness. One fellow is obsessed with his career and spends his days based on the decisions of others. Another, ruled by the love of business and making money, devotes all his energy to the pursuit of the deal. Some are driven mad by rage, and obsessed with violence or being macho, seemingly always hell-bent upon inflicting harm on others or being overly concerned with their own safety! Many individuals are virtually enslaved by a life of servitude working for the wealthy. Others are kept busy either chasing other people’s money or in complaining about their own troubled finances.
Those who choose to have no real purpose in life are ever rootless and dissatisfied, tossed by their aimlessness into ever-changing situations. A man who opts to live a life with no principles to steer by usually gets a big surprise from Fate while he is sitting back and yawning. “As the man says, “The amount of life we truly live is small. For our existence on Earth is not Life, but merely Time.”
Vices entice us on all fronts, and self-indulgence impedes us from seeing the bigger picture. Lust for leisure shields our eyes to the truth and keeps us down, overwhelming our senses and making us a prisoner to the pleasures of the flesh.
Casualties of vice rarely return to their former true selves. Even if they are lucky enough to break free from the shackles of addiction, like the waters of the ocean which continue to churn after a squall has passed, their lives remain in steady turmoil; with never any respite, never any true rest from desire.
Do you think that I am talking just about those who acknowledge their sins and short-comings?
Consider the rich and famous, those whose fortune and success turns everyone in their orbit into a groveling sycophant.
And yet to so many of them wealth and celebrity is a burden! The mere act of being rich and powerful seems to be an effort that drains them of all vitality, even the ability to speak properly. “A lot of them are anemic from perpetual adulation, as if they had been deprived of oxygen by their suffocating legions of fans and the constant stream of glad-handers clamoring to befriend them.
“In short, consider the list of men from the lowest to the highest – the one who needs an advocate, the one who responds to the call, the one who is on trial, the one who defends him and the one who pronounces sentence.
No one stands up for himself. Everyone just pays someone else to do it for them.
Inquire into the lives of famous men and you will find this common trait: A helps B and B helps C; no one is his own master.
And some people have the most absurd attitude, moaning about mean bosses or indifferent colleagues who won’t help them when they don’t even bother trying to help themselves.
“How can anyone complain that no one will give them time when they allot no time for themselves?
Besides, no matter who you are, The Man does occasionally bend his ear to you even if his eyes are looking elsewhere, he does now and then condescend to listen to your demands and let you appear at his side. But you never think to listen to yourself, to bend your own ear to what you yourself have to say.
So there is no reason to feel indebted to anyone for paying you some attention, given that, when you did it for others, you truly had no desire for another’s company and could not even stand your own.
