The Value of Talking to Yourself

Recently, I finished reading through Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations for a second time. The first time you read a text, you typically pay the most attention to what appears on the surface — what’s going on in the narrative, what the author is explicitly communicating, and so on. It makes sense that we do this as part of learning the basics. Once we’re familiar with some of those, though, revisiting a piece of writing may provoke…