In the ongoing “Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers” series from Princeton University Press, “How to Have a Life: An Ancient Guide to Using Our Time Wisely” may be one of the most timely publications with the arrival of a new year. With the inevitable lists of New Year’s resolutions, making the most of our time is often on the list.
In this book, translator James S. Romm, who is the James H. Ottaway Jr. professor of classics at Bard College, takes excerpts from two of Seneca’s works: “On the Shortness of Life” and “Moral Epistles.”
Romm begins the book with a brief introduction about the purpose of Seneca’s works, and an even more brief biography of who the ancient Roman was. Romm identifies one of Seneca’s more important talking points in his introduction when he suggests to “total up the days spent on pedestrian tasks, on meeting the needs of others, or on idle, transitory pleasures. When you look at what’s left ... you’ll see that you’re actually dying young.”
‘On the Shortness of Life’
In his work “On the Shortness of Life,” Seneca’s view of time is less about age and more about how the time is spent. The Roman states that “life is long if you know how to make use of it” and adds later that “you’ll see that your number of years does not measure up to your original count.” It is indeed a sobering thought. The old adage that “life is short” takes on a new meaning when you’re subscribing to Seneca’s philosophy.Seneca is not completely direct about how people should live their lives; he doesn’t say one should do A or B. He speaks less about what one should do and more about what one shouldn’t do. One shouldn’t embrace luxurious living or be caught up in work.
The reader could mistakenly take some of his advice as a preference toward selfishness when he warns against fulfilling other people’s needs. He doesn’t mean to never help others, but rather to do so in moderation; otherwise, one will never live one’s own life.
His life, however, was spent in the service of others—particularly emperors, and specifically Nero. Romm points out that historians and classicists have noted Seneca’s seeming hypocrisy in his writings when he decries people being bogged down by politics and their jobs, while his time was taken almost completely by others.
Analogies and Warnings
While making this exception, readers can hardly miss Seneca’s valid points and analogies. One memorable analogy contrasts merely existing to truly living:“There’s no reason to think someone’s lived long on account of their gray hair and wrinkles. That person only existed, not lived, a long time. Would you say that a man has done much voyaging, if, as soon as he left port, a violent storm seized him and, with furious blasts of wind arising from every direction, drove him in a circle over and over the same route? He didn’t do much journeying; he was only much tossed around.”
Seneca encourages people to take time for things and to not be too busy with the mundane. He adds that one should not live in anticipation because “it depends on tomorrow while squandering today.” He also makes the very contrarian statement that one can choose one’s own family because “there are families out there made up of the noblest intellects; pick the one you want to be joined with.”And lastly, in “On the Shortness of Life,” he warns against working toward money and power, commonly known today as climbing the corporate ladder, when he writes: “Others, after they’ve clawed their way up through a thousand indignities to the heights of dignity, are struck by the awful thought that they’ve only been toiling to carve their own epitaph.”
Seneca is writing to a friend, Lucilius (real or fictive), in much the same way that other ancients did, like Cicero and Plato, to get their points across. It allows for questions and answers as well as counterarguments, which are able to be addressed.
“Some spaces of time are snatched from us; some are siphoned off; some seep away. But the worst loss of all comes about through neglect. Indeed, if you’re paying close attention, the greatest part of life slips past for those who fail to get things done, a large part for those who do nothing, and all of it for those who do something other than what they ought.”
In many ways, Seneca is suggesting that readers discover who they are, what they wish to do, and then to pursue that. Readers will be encouraged to consider or reconsider their current positions in life and what they should change, whether physically or mentally.Romm, in short order, has provided the details of Seneca’s philosophy. These books by Princeton University Press are condensed translations, so they are always quite short and can be read within a couple of hours.
When it comes to “How to Have a Life,” its brevity is perfect as it allows the reader to consider Seneca’s philosophy on the value of time without spending an inordinate amount of time reading his works.
