It Smells Like...Life

The Daily Stoic

Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures

Education, 694393, Daily Stoic, Society & Culture, Stoic, Stoicism, Self-improvement, Business, Stoic Philosophy, Philosophy, Ryan Holiday

4.6 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2019

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The German poet Friedrich Schiller supposedly liked to write with a drawer filled with rotting apples tucked into his desk. The smell was overpowering, but he couldn’t write without it. Apparently, it got the words flowing.

How could that possibly be the case? Maybe it was just a weird quirk or a fetish. Maybe it was a weird part of his writing routine (more on those here). Or maybe, the proximity to decay was an inspiring metaphor, a sort of aromatic memento mori.

Marcus Aurelius once wrote a strange meditation along those lines:

The stench of decay. Rotting meat in a bag.

Look at it clearly. If you can.

Life is that stench, he was saying. We are the rotten meat in a skin bag. From the second we’re born, time starts ticking towards our expiration date. A lot of people want to turn away from that. They want to pretend it’s not real. We’ve gotten very good over the millennia at coming up with ways to help us pretend and to turn away. It’s why so many people are unproductive—they think they can afford to be, because they’re in denial of their mortality and the fact that life is rot, rot, rotting away as they sit there dicking around.

Maybe that’s what the awful smell of fermenting apples did for Schiller. We’ll never really know, but it’s a powerful reminder for us this morning, nonetheless.

Memento mori. Tempus fugit.

Grab it while it’s here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:13.6	Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life.
0:23.3	Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.
0:35.3	It smells like life. The German poet, Frederick Schiller, supposedly liked to write with a drawer filled with rotting apples tucked into his desk.
0:46.3	The smell was overpowering, but he couldn't write without it. Apparently, it got the words flowing. How could that possibly be the case? Maybe it was just a weird quirk or a fetish. Maybe it was a weird part of his writing routines.
1:01.3	By the way, if you want to see more writing routines, check out our site writingroutines.com. But maybe the proximity to decay was an inspiring metaphor, a sort of aromic memento-mory.
1:13.3	Marcus Aurelius once wrote a strange meditation along those lines. He said, the stench of decay, rotting meat in a bag, look at it clearly if you can.
1:26.3	Life is that stench, she was saying. We are the rotten meat in a skin bag. From the second we're born, time starts ticking down towards our expiration date.
1:37.3	A lot of people want to turn away from that. They want to pretend it's not real. We've gotten very good over the millennia at coming up with ways to help us pretend and to turn away.
1:49.3	It's why so many people are unproductive. They think they can afford to be because they are in denial of their mortality and the fact that life is rot, rot rotting away as they sit there, digging around.
2:02.3	Maybe that's what the awful smell of fermenting apples did for Schiller. We'll never really know. But it's a powerful reminder for us this morning nonetheless.
2:13.3	Memento-mory, tempis-fugit. Grab it while it's still there.
2:19.3	If you're liking this podcast, we would love for you to subscribe. Please leave us a review on iTunes or any of your favorite podcast listening apps. It really helps and tell a friend.
2:32.3	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.

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