As the old saying goes, “Live and learn.”
We can only hope for so much, I think.
But I’m not the only one who wishes to live and learn. It’s been going on for quite some time now.
In fact, a man named Publilius Syrus once said:
“Each day is the scholar of yesterday.”
I love this quote. So knowing. So wise. Each day is the scholar of yesterday.
Yes, Publilius. We live, and we learn.
Publilius Syrus lived a long time ago. He was born in 85 BC in Antioch. And he died about 41 years later, in 43 BC.
He was a Latin writer best known for his “sententiae.” I had to look up the word “sententiae.” Because I wasn’t sure if Syrus had some form of antennae on his head or if he was just sentimental. As it turns out, “sententiae” is the plural of the Latin word sententia. And it means, to quote, “brief moral sayings, such as proverbs, adages, aphorisms, maxims, or apophthegms taken from ancient or popular or other sources, often quoted without context.”
In other words, he coined a lot of nifty phrases.
Anyway, this guy was a Syrian from Antioch. He ended up in Roman Italy as a slave.
Because of his wit and talent, Syrus won the favor of his master, who granted him release from slavery. The “owner” also took an interest in educating Syrus.
The thing that gets me is the timeline. This man, this slave, was thinking big some 3,000 years ago. He was living his life, learning one thing after the next, each day growing internally, in spirit, and in mind. And because of this, he noted, “Each day is the scholar of yesterday.”
This is profound.
As I look around at our society today, at all the disfunction and self-righteous entitlement, I wonder if we are headed in the right direction. So many people have their noses pressed against their phones, watching the endless stream of videos on TikTok of skateboarders crashing into plate glass windows or people eating Tide pods as a challenge.
I wonder. What is the lesson there? Where is the growth? Where is the true challenge?
As I think about my own life, my journey of working toward “awareness” didn’t begin until I was 41 years old. So my timeline is clearly lagging in comparison to that of Syrus and his life.
And 20 years later, I’m not sure that I know anything, for sure.
But from all of this, I must remember what Syrus said. Each day is a scholar of yesterday. And so I try to keep moving, and learning. And growing forward into a better version of myself.
As for the rest of the world? I can only continue to act in a better way each day and hope that it makes a difference to the people and places around me.
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He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.
— Confucius
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We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.
— Lucy Maud Montgomery
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The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.
— B. B. King
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The learning of an ancient slave, one day after the next
