Meditations Theme of Change (Transience)

As Marcus Aurelius puts it in the Meditations, as soon as you get attached to something, you lose it. That's just life. Even human life itself it short-lived, constantly moving toward decay, unstable

But according to Marcus, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure, it's annoying to lose everything that's important to you, and sometimes it's even pretty sad, but the thing is that change is necessary and inevitable. The universe is all about change, Marcus declares, and he observes that a constant movement of substances throughout the cosmos renews the life of the world. Without that kind of change, there is stagnation and death for everyone.

Basically, change is eternal, and it affects everything and everyone. Every person matures and decays and is recycled back into the cosmos. It's always been that way, and it always will. It's in our nature to participate in this process, like it or not.

1. Why does Marcus think that life on earth is "shoddy"?
2. According to Marcus, why is change necessary?
3. What is the proper response to the transience of human life, according to this work? How are we to act in the face of constant change and decay?
4. In what ways is change useful? In what ways is it a stumbling block or hindrance?

Change is both a positive and negative quality in Marcus's universe, even though he spends most of his time complaining about the transience of the world.

The fact that the universe is constantly changing should lead Marcus to despair, but in fact it gives him hope.