Is It Worth The Dissolution?
It serves us to assess whether we've maintained the targeted vigor with which we may have entered the year. What intentions have been upheld, and what's been eclipsed by life's demands or distractions? Philosophy's intention is not to discount the administrative realities and circumstantial duties impressed upon us per our placements in life; it instead impels us to maintain an appropriate view of all things in relation to the whole of things. Marcus Aurelius offers us a tactical directive in Book IV of Meditations with the following:
“And here it is essential to remember that the care bestowed on each action should be proportionate to its worth; for then you will not lose heart and give up, if you are not busying yourself with lesser matters to a greater extent than they deserve.”
Our task in our own lives is to identify what these lesser matters may be, and to decide whether they're worth the dissolution of our identified higher matters. Disproportionate energy put toward lesser matters not only correlates with but accelerates the dissolution of the capacities and pursuits we deem significant. The more we optimize for the lesser, the more tolerant we become of our time being consumed that way. The higher our tolerance for the insignificant, the weaker our will for what matters.
As we audit our lives and uncover these lesser area-time investment ratios (as measured by the degree to which we or others are meaningfully helped by that thing), it behooves us to ask a pointed question: Is it worth the dissolution? Be it the scrolling that comprises hours over the course of a week (or day), or the less-than-useful meetings that we've become so accustomed to occupying space on the calendar, is the ongoing tolerance worth the dissolution of our capacity for meaningful engagement elsewhere?
May the answer shift the balance in favor of our higher matters.
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