As a child my favourite experience was a bonfire, no doubt partly because it was always a profound mystery and partly because I liked the idea of destruction (purification?). It wasn’t so much seeing the insatiable dragon we call fire consuming endless amounts of wood and leaves and old boxes that was mystifying, but rather the fact that the dragon itself, having consumed all that matter, itself became nothing.
Read MoreThe Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who reigned from 161 to his death in 180, wrote his Meditations, as they have come to be known, while on campaign with his legions on the Danube. He wrote the work in Greek and gave it the title ΤΩΝ ΕΙΣ ΕΑΥΤΟΝ, meaning literally ‘Of the things (addressed) to himself’.
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