Straight, Not Straightened

The reason why I enjoyed reading Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” is because it handles many aspects of life in a simple, straightforward way unlike previous readings. Among his various meditations, my favorite one is this, “Straight, not straightened.”

Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist, once said, “Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am and what I need, these things I have to find out myself.” We constantly learn how to be righteous throughout our lives. However, we have to remember that even though we have learned various pieces of wisdom from others, it is useless if we do not apply them into our lives. In other words, others can teach us some morals but it does not mean they can make us righteous, too. We have to be virtuous on our own, not by others. “Straight, not straightened.”