Everyone is writing a book!
I saw this quote on a writer’s website and I love it.
Cicero was a Roman philosopher, a statesman and a lawyer. He was Roman Consul and a constitutionalist. He is widely considered to be one of Rome’s greatest orators, and yet he still had trouble with his kids!
Look at his face too. He could be someone we pass in the street. He could be a politician or an actor, or maybe even a relative. He looks contemporary. He also looks just a little bit stressed. Like people nowadays, he was a busy man, so maybe when he was writing his speeches and histories, or preparing his court cases, he was also shouting at his children to make less noise. And as for all those books…!
It all goes to show that there is nothing new under the sun. Times move on, fashions change, technology takes over, and we are so busy living our day to day lives that we forget that we are shadowed by the past. And yet the past is something that we should never forget because it carries a powerful message. It has lessons for everyone…they just need an up-to-date translation.
So the next time someone you know decries the changes that are happening all around us, or complains that the younger generation spend too much time on facebook, and twitter, or are wasting their time texting, remember Cicero. And when you are surrounded by people who pronounce that the world is going to hell in a handcart, remember Cicero. And when you meet someone who says that electronic readers and electronic books will close down publishing houses and kill literature, remember Cicero.
He thought times were bad too. His kids kept going off piste, and he was depressed by the fact that far too many of his fellow countrymen were writing books. So what did he do? Well after Julius Caesar’s death he championed a return to a traditional republican government. His reward? He was proscribed as an enemy of the state after his passionate speeches made him Mark Antony’s enemy, and he was killed in 43BC.
Of course he left behind a very influential body of work, and he has had a profound effect on history. His writings influenced the culture of the Renaissance and inspired the Founding Fathers of the United States, as well as the revolutionaries of the French Revolution. But there was another side to Cicero. At times he was overreactive in the face of political and private change, and he was known for his inconsistencies and his tendency to shift his position. Indeed one of his colleages said: Would that he had been able to endure prosperity with greater self control, and adversity with more fortitude.
So perhaps he should have shouted just a little less and embraced change just a little more…well that’s what I’m going to try to do anyway!