PS forgive the fact that I immediately published my own thoughts for others to read and respond to. Not very Marcus Aurelius of me.

I read Meditations today as a newbie and what follows is my own thought pattern as I sat in silence in the wake of the book. Enjoy!

I have deduced that Man possesses a soul, or something that very nearly all men have, that very nearly no other animal has, and that Man calls it a soul. This understanding is derived from the fact that all things beyond sensation lend themselves to consciousness; although he must explore the world to realize his sentience and therefore must utilize his animal half in order to access his rational half and thus realize Man’s rationality. When in pursuit of the satiation of the animal sensation of hunger, Man may come across a bush bearing attractive, colorful fruit. The sensational smell may guide Man to harvest the fruit, at which point previously unseen teeth spring from the branch and try to eat Man’s hand. Understandably, Man is likely to withdraw his hand from the treacherous creature he has just encountered and similarly withdraw his person (perhaps hastily) from the bush’s vicinity; seeking the cure to his hunger pangs elsewhere. Thus the bush has deterred another stupid beast from interfering in it’s reproductive cycle. But Man is not just another stupid beast. Had he been born a squirrel or a bird the story would end here; and he’d eventually have excluded this berry and it’s bush from his diet. Man is tenacious however and further, and more importantly, he possesses in his arsenal a tool which, as previously stated, virtually none of the animal kingdom possesses. Reason. Man is capable. Having been thwarted by the devil creature masquerading as a bush bearing tasty fruit, he will eventually find a place to satiate his sensation of fatigue, as do all creatures. During this rest however he will do something peculiar. He will more likely than not reflect on his day. He does not know why he does this but now nevertheless he does. He will doubtlessly recall how a peculiar creature bit him when he grabbed for what looked like tasty fruit and will start to do another peculiar thing. He will ponder the mystery of the devil creature in the forest. After some time man will do another thing. He posits a theory to himself that this violent creature that has bested him is not violent at all. In fact the creature may have been a bush as he first suspected but with some sort of defense mechanism to prevent stupid creatures from doing exactly what it was he had attempted. Man then does several things not normally seen in the animal kingdom. He makes a sort of mental note to examine the bush more closely if he sees one like it again. And then he does see one. In fact, he realizes, he has been looking for it for the entire time that has elapsed between his plan-hatchery and the time that he finally stumbled upon it; to the detriment even of his other tasks. After some examination our curious friend will be delighted to find that with care and deliberation he can maneuver around the teeth and delicately pluck the tasty fruit from its holdfast. At first he may find himself astonished. So amazed by his own work that he forgets why he endeavored to do it at all. He studies the smallish fruit, again using his animalistic senses but now toward a higher purpose. He knows now that he was right once before, and that this bush feels great need to passively deter interlopers from partaking in its appealing assets. But why? After some more deliberation he maybe comes to yet another conclusion; this time that this really must be some special fruit for the nature of its master to be so protective of it. When no longer can man stand to hold it, to smell its healthy ripeness or to even gaze upon this tender piece of flesh in his palm, the sticky blood of which must now be running to his wrist before escaping one drop at a time to the forest floor; Man shovels it into his mouth, believing himself a veritable pioneer in the world of gastronomy. Several things may happen now. Man may experience an unpleasant sour sensation and almost immediately refuse the fruit in the opposite direction from whence he first experienced it. He may contemplate it for a moment before swallowing, evaluate the situation and decide he’s not sure why the bush bit him and those who came before; for while the fruit would certainly do the job of satiating that hunger sensation, it would take most of the day to carefully harvest enough of it to ward off the unpleasantness that drove him to the bush in the first place and it simply isn’t worth it. Man is, after all, busy with all the fighting and humping and resting he must do day after day. Or, the fruit may pass Man’s test and he has his full of it before returning to the place in which he rests; whereupon he simply never wakes up. Finally: man may experience a brand new sensation. His eyes may widen as he chews and swallows the bright morsel and he gazes at the bush knowingly, understanding it all now. The bush was righteous in guarding the tasty little fruits. If these were undefended every creature in the forest would be chowing on them madly; ceaselessly. Imagine the massacre! So of course the bush must have taken up arms to protect the fruits. Probably, thinks man, now getting quite the hang of this theorizing business, probably the bush protects these so only a creature as smart as he could enjoy them. In a combination of the chemistry of sucrose and the satisfaction only man will ever know and only ever after having completed something previously impossible to him, he gathers enough of the sassy little plant’s fruits to eat on the walk home in what remains of the afternoon light and begins his journey. On the way he probably sees someone he knows well and does yet another peculiar thing. He communicates with this neighbor (who he likes and who he feels would probably enjoy a story of heroism and a snack) and he gives the other a portion of his spoils. This may happen countless times before Man finally gets to his resting place but eventually, he will do the peculiarest thing of them all. He will of course be a master at telling the finer details of his story after just a few times of telling it when he comes across yet another neighbor. This neighbor, however, is one our heroic friend is not particularly fond of and at once he is doubtlessly shocked to realize just how little of his stash remains after handing out the trophies all evening. How many morsels had he given away now? He had not counted. He will later come to the conclusion that he was so proud of his own story and so hungry for the admiration of his peers, for the ability to tell them something they did not know that he had lost track. For now, gazing at the not-friend neighbor and then at his much-diminished handful several times he makes a naughty decision. He scurries past the other, not giving him any outward attention, and returns home to finish what remains of his most excellent adventure, alone. After all, he reasons, the not-friend didn’t solve the mystery of the biting bush.