Rolling in the Tub

<blockquote>Such sights and sounds, my Philo, brought into my head that old anecdote about the Sinopean. A report that Philip was marching on the town had thrown all Corinth into a bustle; one was furbishing his arms, another wheeling stones, a third patching the wall, a fourth strengthening a battlement, every one making himself useful somehow or other. Diogenes having nothing to do — of course no one thought of giving him a job — was moved by the sight to gird up his philosopher’s cloak and begin rolling his tub-dwelling energetically up and down the Craneum; an acquaintance asked, and got, the explanation: ‘I do not want to be thought the only idler in such a busy multitude; I am rolling my tub to be like the rest.’</blockquote>

Today, it is really easy to get wrapped up in trying to be everything to everyone. Diogenes is clearly mocking the franticness of our lives, showing how pointless our concerns really are. None of that bustling was doing much of anything. It's was just born of fear and apprehension. Step back and relax sometimes. History can be out of our will.

http://lucianofsamosata.info/TheWayToWriteHistory.html