Starting A Journey With Marcus Aurelius

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
– Marcus Aurelius

Meet Marcus Aurelius

He is a 1994 Toyota Corolla. When I was traveling a lot, I’d tell the shuttle driver, it’s the crappy silver Corolla with the bra.

You are probably wondering a few things:

1. Why have I named my car?

2. What journey are we starting on?

3. Why Marcus Aurelius?

I haven’t named a car since I was in high school. My high school car was named Phillip. Why? Because we constantly needed to Fill-up the car.

See what I did there?

Yeah, that’s why I haven’t named a car since then. But, I’m going to be talking about Marcus Aurelius over the coming months. It seemed more natural to anthropomorphize him than keep saying, “My car.”

Marcus Aurelius currently has 295,000 miles.

I expect him to roll over 300K sometime next Spring. I thought I’d document the ride.

He hit 295K on 12/5/2021 at 11:15pm. He was parked on the side of the freeway in Lehi, UT. (He wasn’t broken. I just didn’t trust myself to take a picture while he was moving.)

I was returning for a 1000 mile round trip to Boise, Idaho from my home in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

I drove to Boise to meet my brother and together we drove from Boise to Lacey, Washington to bury my brother Charles Bliss.

Was I nervous taking a car with that many miles on a journey of hundreds of miles on the freeway through desolate desert of Northern Utah and Southern Idaho?

Let’s just say that I packed my tools. . .all of them – my entire 3′ tall tool chest. Just in case.

Marcus Aurelius did great. Not a hiccup.

Oh, and why Marcus Aurelius? I don’t know. I was trying to think of an appropriate name. If the name Marcus Aurelius sounds familiar, he was the emperor in the movie “Gladiator.” He was the good emperor that befriended Russell Crowe’s character Maximus Decimus Meridius.

But, other than that, there was no reason. (I really tried to find an after-the-fact tie-in but, nope. Some writer I turned out to be.)

We’ll check in with Marcus Aurelius every 1000 miles for the next few months until he gets to the arbitrary number of 300,000 miles.

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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