Many of us can be forgiven for having thought that this life thing was pretty easy. The last few decades have been pretty good to us. Booming economies. Great technology. Our wars have had limited impact on our populace and our recessions have been short. 

We were living, as one academic said after the fall of communism, after the end of history. All those tragic, bleak moments of the past…were past us. 

There’s nothing like a global pandemic—one eerily similar to the plagues of the ancient world—to disabuse us of that notion. Nothing brings that home quite like hearing that New York City, the crown jewel of this cushy, modern world, had to set up temporary morgues to handle the growing piles of bodies. Nothing like hearing that millions of people are out of work to make it clear that this is not a drill. 

No. This is real life. This is what we have been—and should have been—training for. “No role is so well-suited to philosophy as the one you happen to be in right now,” Marcus Aurelius said…as Rome’s empire ground to a halt and the plague descended upon the city. “Life is warfare and a journey far from home,” he said, as he battled invaders at the frontier for years on end. 

We are living through history, just as Marcus was and all the Stoics were. This is not a drill. It’s time to put on our big girl pants and get serious. Get to work. It’s time to embody the philosophy we have talked about. It’s time to muster those critical virtues of Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom. 

This won’t be easy, but it’s what’s in front of us.

P.S. This was originally sent on August 12, 2020. Sign up today for the Daily Stoic’s email and get our popular free 7-day course on Stoicism.