He has been reading the Meditations, and he said most of it seems like really sound advice. But he was really irritated by the Stoic take on ambition. Why should I reconcile myself to being a tiny speck in the Universe? What's wrong with my trying to become excellent at my craft and thereby to gain undying fame? What's wrong with wanting immortality?
Wow. Funny you should be asking me these things.
I told him I couldn't stay on the phone long (in the end it was about half an hour) but that we should talk more on the weekend. And I added that this is a question I've actually spent a fair bit of time thinking about. So I gave him a few different ways to think about it and we called it a day, until the weekend or something.
It's just funny that he's wrestling with the exact same question I did. Part of me figured that the reason I wasted so much time on it was that my father was always filling my head with hot air about my own superiority from a very early age. I tried hard not to do the same thing with my boys. That is, I assured them that I loved them, and that they should pursue what they wanted to pursue because they'd probably do well at it. But I tried not to talk about Greatness. I don't know what Wife might have said behind my back.
But maybe this isn't a question you get from Someone Else. Maybe it's just one of those things that some people wrestle with, regardless.
It was a delightful phone call and I look forward to continuing it.
Sent from my iPhone
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