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We Are Not Alone

Daily Stoic Emails

Ghosts are, of course, a silly thing to believe in (Athenodorus’ ghost story notwithstanding). Yet the Stoics would not have scoffed at Eleanor Roosevelt’s feeling of not being alone in the Lincoln bedroom. As the New York Times would write many years ago in an editorial about her claim, “The White House is built of memories…It will remain a haunted house as long as it stands, but only in the benign sense that unseen presences may still be watching the destiny of the Republic…What American, passing by that great pillared residence, in time of stress, could fail to feel reassured to sense the shadowy figure of Lincoln, just as Mrs. Roosevelt describes him, gazing thoughtfully from a window?”

And so the same feeling goes walking past the old stoa poikile. Or the Colosseum. Or picking up a yellowed and crumbling edition of Meditations. You feel not just the presence of the Stoics themselves…but all the people who followed since. The parade of people, as Marcus Aurelius himself wrote, doing what human beings have always done–people just like you, people with the same vices and virtues as you, teaching you, advising you, cautioning you with their example.

Whether spirits exist or not, none of us are alone. Lincoln gazes at us thoughtfully. Seneca keeps a light on for us at night, beckoning us to sit down and reflect on our day. Cato’s statue–or lack thereof, as we have discussed–stands up as an example to follow. The private thoughts and admonitions of Marcus are there to reassure us, guiding us toward our own destiny.

This is not a scary thing. It’s not a haunting thing. It is, as we talked about at Daily Dad (which you can sign up for here), the role that ancestors are supposed to play. They inspire us. They protect us. They reassure us. They give us company.

We are not alone, and never will be. Remember that. Act accordingly.