If you could travel in time...
... and if you could only meet one person!
Whom would you choose to meet?
I bet you've heard that question before. I bet you've thought about it. Maybe, you've answered it. Maybe other people have told you their choices? Maybe you've heard choices like Jesus and Einstein...I once read those were the top 2 choices when North Americans were asked that question. [Certainly, I have considered those choices.]
So many great people...it would be so tough to choose.
Probably, if I had the opportunity I would choose Lord Nelson, the flamboyant heart of the British Navy during its heyday...or maybe it would be Sitting Bull...or Cleopatra...or...
Maybe I would choose the great Roman philosopher and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero?
What an interesting fellow!
Cicero: Prior to his execution/assassination, legend has it, he looked his assassin in the eye and said something like "There is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly." Then he offered his neck for the killing blow. Like Lord Nelson, Cicero illustrated courage in his last actions and words.
Marcus Tullius Cicero1 was a successful lawyer and champion of constitutional law.
Cicero left us a long list of meaningful and memorable quotes.
Cicero, a little over 2000 years ago, created the classic Six Mistakes of Man.
The Six Mistakes of Man2
- The illusion that personal gain or advancement is made up of crushing others.
- The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
- Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
- Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
- Neglecting development and refinement of the mind and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.
- Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.
It would be nice to spend a sunny afternoon, in Rome's senate building, sitting and chatting with Cicero...and I suppose, also keeping an eye open for Julius Caesar's and others' henchmen.
Footnote:
- Cicero: the origin of this family name is the 'chickpea'...an old and important crop. Probably, Cicero's ancestors' family business was growing chickpeas.
- There are several different interpretations, using slightly different words to convey these 'Six Mistakes of Man' messages. I have blended them.