Why look back to the Ancients: Aurelius, Seneca, and the Stoics? Why would we want to return to one of the last Roman Emperors and Greek philosophers who personified rigorous self-denial, extreme fortitude and emotional indifference? Perhaps because we live in an age characterized by self-indulgence, cowardice, and untrammeled emotion? One of the very first books I devoured as a college undergrad was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. A college professor I admired greatly and have written about in previous posts would liberally quote Aurelius’ pithy observations. I had walked away from God and all things religious but was ferociously searching […]