Ambition Across Centuries

“Every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.”— Marcus Aurelius (often presented today as: A [wo]man’s worth is no greater than their ambitions.)

Form: Dialogue between centuries. Two internal monologues that find one another: Marcus (Rome, 2nd century, 161 CE) and Melissa (Alaska, 21st century, 2025).

MARCUS: Rome is having challenges. The people need me to be strong. I stepped up in a time of trouble. But I know my direction in life and I am committed to getting there. I measure myself in this direction. By this ambition inside me. If I aim only for comfort, I become a cushion. I fall asleep when people need me. If I aim for wealth, I become addicted to its greed. If fame is my measure, I forget what once used to live inside me and instead become what others want me to be. Ambition is the mold we pour ourselves into. Every man's worth is no greater than their ambitions.

MELISSA: It is June in Alaska and dusk is far away. These long summer days are dollars in the bank of my creative mind. I sit and stare at the sun skimming the jagged mountains in the early morning hours, writing about my life’s direction. Just what am I doing? Are my values aligned with my new desires? What brings on this change? Am I seeking something new because I want wealth, status? My coffee is ambition-flavored…too strong and a little burnt. I have goals, and I know I have the drive. But I’m burnt out. The passion I have inside me is standing still. Now I yearn for something new. My ambition tells me to ensure this new destination matches the passion I so crave to continue dwelling. My self-respect depends on it.

MARCUS: How am I measuring up? I sit here and wonder as I drink my watered wine. I hide away from the people I promised to protect. I cower as the vivid pictures flash in my mind of all the people suffering. Their bodies covered in black and red scabs, swollen throats, blood spewing with every cough. Am I worthy of leading this empire to solace? In order for me to have comfort in this time of distress, I must reflect on life; sell a script to my mind, yet the script is priceless. It is my duty to lead with honesty, compassion, and remain courageous, even through these challenges Rome faces. The crowd measures worth by applause. Are they applauding for me? If not, should I care? I know that a mind at peace measures by alignment: Are my targets in tune with my core and my callings? This is essential to my well-being.

MELISSA: Alignment. I don’t feel aligned. But I think I know how to line up again and keep going. I am in the true North and we are in trouble. Our people are losing hope. This lost hope is what gives me mine. It gives me the courage to find the true north again—and step back onto the path. I have what it takes to give people back their hope. And that gives me back my passion, which aligns with my ambition, my values, what I’m meant for. Sometimes I see ambition as a ladder, meant to climb. But now I see it as a path. A path North. North looks like: fewer apologies, more experiments. North sounds like: kids laughing when learning finally clicks. North feels like: fear that decides to come along, buckled in the back seat, and courage that steps out of hiding, swells to fill you, then overflows into action.

MARCUS: I am often misread. Does Rome think I am here only to lead troops to victory? That I crave control? I only praise control of oneself. They are wrong if they think I praise conquest. I fight to protect, to stay alive, to be an empire. No, I am not a lover of conflict. How will I be remembered? I hope this is not the way. I wish to be remembered for my courage. For holding fear close and letting courage take over in moments of need. I desire for my people to understand that I stand up for others. I am noble. I am true. I am genuinely ambitious.

MELISSA: People often think I am someone that I’m not. Like maybe I have too many dreams and not enough follow through. A good person, always a phone call away, but average, and if I were to tell you I was going to make a difference, in any kind of way, you might secretly roll your eyes. This might be a mistake I have made. I’m waiting for that courage to swell. I know I want meaningful things for the right reasons. But that word ambition still feels like an expensive parka that’s way too big and unable to keep me warm. I’m freezing: teacher, caregiver, side-hustler builder, night-writer. I don’t want to dominate; I want to design. I don’t want a throne, but I do want enough to sustain me. To give me luxuries along with my passion.

MARCUS: The throne is a tool. A chair with splinters. Your leadership will not always be comfortable. Sit only to stand others up. If your ambition is to make a space where the vulnerable may grow, then you most certainly are practicing the highest kind of leadership without applause.

MELISSA: Hello? Has someone just answered me? I like that. Sit only to stand others up. I’ve been told to dream “big” but “big” is often someone else’s billboard. My dream is spacious, not loud. It’s an RV traveling with no compass, a business that buys me mornings, time with my lover, time with family, a friend, and a book that buys some kid the thought: If she could, I can.

MARCUS: Yes, Melissa. I answered you. I believe our guardian spirit is living in alignment. Wherever you are, I hear your noise. I feel your cold. I see your experiments. I notice your worth. It is not measured in the noise of your dream but in its harmony. Ask: When you are gone, what remains gentler because you were here? And remember: A person’s worth is no greater than their ambitions.

MELISSA: Who are you? What does that mean-measured in its harmony? Does it mean I should dissect how my goals fit my values and benefit others? I’m not sure that is something I can find out. I just want to be remembered. I want my students to say, “that teacher really cared.” She was a teacher who stopped on the hard days to teach with love instead of lessons. I want to write a book and be a page where a reader sees herself as the hero. Maybe a trail of practical checklists and a few ridiculous jokes. I want the lasting lesson to be kindness.

MARCUS: Comedians are truth tellers. The jokes, keep them. The books, write them. The lessons, lose them. Teaching with love on hard days is always more powerful than curriculum.

MELISSA: Deal. Still, I’m stuck on your sentence. A person’s worth is no greater than their ambitions. Isn’t there danger in tying worth to doing? What if I can’t achieve what I set out to do? What if the avalanche of my life stops me from aiming high enough?

MARCUS: There is meaning deeper in this phrase, don’t strike it down just yet. Hear what I meant beneath the grammar: not that one’s dignity depends on ambition—it does not; everyone starts with the same value. What changes is how we express our value.

MELISSA: Please give me examples, philosophical, far away stranger.

MARCUS: A teacher choosing routines and teaching kids to thrive shows up as steadiness, love and care. Writing that tells the truth on the page shows up as courage and honesty. You expressed earlier that ambition is not height but direction. With this I agree, and we also align.

MELISSA: You know me from afar. I wish I knew you. Here are my ambitions out loud, as if the saying makes a road appear.

(She takes a breath. Somewhere, he nods.)

MELISSA: I want to make work that lets me keep my health. I want to teach without burning out like a match. I want to write books that don’t apologize for being silly, heartfelt, and raw. I want a business that pays for generosity—mine and others’. I want to leave systems that help kids and their grownups stop spinning.

MARCUS: Add to your list the ambition to be gentle with failure. I have failed and I have learned it is something to accept, to forgive. Don't blame, adapt, change your stance and keep practicing. Learn these things from me.

MELISSA: Noted. I’ll be ambitious about recovery, too. Rest as a skill, not a reward. And I’d like to ask from whom I am learning.

MARCUS: You can call me Marcus. I am from quite a few centuries before your time. Nineteen centuries to be exact. However, our creative forces place us directly in tune with nature and its space within the universe. I felt your vibe deep within my being. It’s like you were reading my writings, meditating in my soul.

MELISSA: Ah. We write on the same page, Marcus. Centuries of time separate us but minds alike bring our times together. I appreciate your wisdom. And your advice.

MARCUS: It’s always free. I appreciate your depth. And thanks for the visuals. You must live in a wondrous place. The descriptions place me on the tallest mountain touching the sky.

MELISSA: You’d like Alaska. Here, worth is winters weathered, horizons that hush us, strangers turned companions, and a quiet nod of gratitude to the land.

MARCUS: I would like the sky. And the quiet.

MELISSA: Would I like Rome? You are Marcus from the empire of Rome, yes? Mr. Marcus Aurelius? How I wish I could travel through time and know for sure what life was like for you and your people.

MARCUS: You would like the smell. Olive wood smoke, fresh bread, street grills, and the wet stone, damp leaves, earthy after rain smell of the Tiber river blowing in the wind after a fresh breeze.

MELISSA: That description leaves me standing by the river bank.

MARCUS: Don’t fall in.

MELISSA: I’ll be cautious. I’ve got your wisdom and my ambitions. Ambitions neither noisy nor small.

MARCUS: Then we have spoken across time and found a sentence both of us can keep: Let our ambitions be neither noisy nor small; let them be honest, humane, and ours. The rest is labor.

MELISSA: And coffee.

MARCUS: What’s coffee?