If I didn’t know better and time were malleable, I would wager that Marcus Aurelius (121 AD, Rome, Italy. Died March 17, 180 AD)  wrote Kohelet, the book we know as Ecclesiastes. His observations about life’s trials, friends and foes, and even our hopes jump off the page fresh as bread, sharp as pain.

Aurelius reminds me there is “nothing new under the sun” (Eccles. 1:9). Across the millennia, we humans continue to be vanquished by the same pitfalls, propelled by the same avarice, and soothed by the same comforts. I don’t know whether to be  despondent or relieved. Or simply grateful that in this ancient ruler of the Roman Empire, I have a fellow traveler