Meditations

For book club we read Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome. It's a book of Stoic rumination on right behavior, addressed to himself, apparently intended for his eyes only.

I didn't really like the book. It emphasizes thinking about death a lot, so one can face it calmly when it comes. To me it sounds like self-inducing depression so you can face death without caring.

It doesn't make sense
to live your days under a cloud
just to suppress
your fear of the funeral shroud.