Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Gregory Hayes, Book 6.16

“What is it in ourselves that we should prize?

Not just transpiration (even plants do that).

Or respiration (even beasts and wild animals breathe).

 Or being struck by passing thoughts.

 Or jerked like a puppet by your own impulses.

 Or moving in herds.

 Or eating, and relieving yourself afterwards.

Then what is to be prized?

An audience clapping? No. No more than the clacking of their tongues.

Which is all that public praise amounts to—a clacking of tongues.

So we throw out other people’s recognition. What’s left for us to prize? I think it’s this: to do (and not do) what we were designed for.

That’s the goal of all trades, all arts, and what each of them aims at: that the thing they create should do what it was designed to do.

The nurseryman who cares for the vines, the horse trainer, the dog breeder—this is what they aim at.

And teaching and education—what else are they trying to accomplish?”

Reader, this man was the Emperor of Rome.

Considered an embodiment of God by many.

Yet he too struggles with the same issues we do, like a desire for the respect of those close to you, the many, the powerful.

There is a never ending fascination of human who are famous, accomplished, or attractive.

It is because they are doing what they are "designed" to do.

You ask 'em, they'll tell you, whether or not they have websites.

So Reader, what is it you designed to do?