There I was, reading Horace’s Epistles, dreaming of my upcoming vacation, dreaming of expatriating, even, and he slaps me across the face from 2,000 years away. (As he tends to do.)
My friend Alan Jacobs, who was the one who got me into Horace, suggests that the poet might “be the man of our social-media moment — the man who shows us another and better way.” He quotes the letter “To Maecenas,” i.18:
what do you think I pray for?
“May I continue to have what I have right now,
Or even less, as long as I’m self-sufficient.
If the gods should grant me life, though just for a while,
May I live my life to myself, with books to read,
And food to sustain me for another year,
And not to waver with the wavering hours.”
“Not to waver with the wavering hours…” There’s a motto.