"Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers."
-Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius poses the notion that those who spend more time learning through books than experiencing through deeds are both prone to idleness and a lack of greater understanding. Effectively, he is saying to get outside and "touch grass." Do something, rather than spending your entire life being told what that something is.
Most of us see 12 years of schooling before we're even adults, and some elect to continue that schooling afterward, spending years in pursuit of knowledge pertaining to an interest or a career, rather than learning something they can practically apply.
Would you rather read about a sunset, or see one for yourself? Would you prefer to imagine a life of travel, or visit these far-flung places firsthand? Have you truly experienced what oppression and poverty are, or merely been taught what they feel like? Have you truly felt trauma, or do your feelings merely present themselves as more acute due to your learned focus upon them? Is the love of a fictional couple truly more compelling than finding your own? How can you understand the smell and texture of perfectly tilled soil without having pressed your hands into it or scooped it into your palms?
Are you content to live your life through the experiences of others, or would you rather craft your own story, with your own memories, and yourself as the star of the narrative that you choose to pursue?
Without an experience in worldly matters, all is academic, and there is no book or lecture or TikTok short or YouTube video that can compare to the feeling of stepping off a boat into the Gulf of Mexico to dive a Spanish shipwreck. Or to sitting lakeside in the Georgia summer and howling to the coyotes in the hills. There is no book which tastes as sweet as a warm cup of cocoa during the first snowfall, nor as bitter as the sting of a hard-fought victory snatched from your grasp by the buzzer at a basketball game. Your books and lectures and videos will never show you the same precocious and playful affection of a stray cat fed scraps from your workday lunch.
Get outside.
Touch grass.
Swim with the sharks.
Run with the bulls.
Climb a mountain.
Try a new food.
Explore a new city.
Pick up a hobby that makes you afraid in that fun and exciting way.
Ride your bike without handlebars, just to say you can.
Learn something through action.
Stop reading about living, and do it for yourself.
You only have one life, so make it one worth looking back upon with joy and pride.
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3 weeks, 5 days ago
20 Jul 2025 08:15 CEST
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