Everyday Canvas

Perspective and Mind Power

Prompt: "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."~ Marcus Aurelius
"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."~ Marcus Aurelius
Do you agree or disagree with Mr. Aurelius? Please discuss both of his quotes.

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I mostly agree with whatever Marcus Aurelius--the kindest Roman Emperor--said, ever since a high school lit teacher gave me his Meditations. Still, I don’t have to agree with him 100% on everything, such as the phrase ‘everything we hear.’ Everything we hear can be gossip or the crash of two objects or thunder. Some things may be facts, others not.

On a stormy day, if several people have heard the thunder and some have seen the lightning, then it is thunder; this I wouldn’t call an opinion, but if someone says something about someone or an event and people believe it without checking the factual side of it, it becomes an opinion based on perspective and hearsay.

As to the second quote, continuing with the thunder image, one may be afraid of thunder or not. That fear comes from the mind, not the thunder itself because, in its meteorological essence, the sound of thunder happens after the fact of lightning. Lightning is something one probably should fear if not in a safe place, but not thunder. The knowledge of this points to the power of control of a person over his or her mind.

On the same token, one should not fear empty gossip that an elected official is a bad person but one should grasp or find the fact of something happening if it is really happening, such as that official actually proposing a new law that could deny the citizens’ inalienable rights, or a terrorist attack, or an alien or a zombie invasion, should there be one, ever.

Since we are on Marcus Aurelius, I’d like to finish this entry off with one of my favorite quotes by him: “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”