Heroes Not Zombies

With his reading and writing Montaigne often adopted the habit of dialogue, not least with his best friend of all time, La Boetie, the author of “On Voluntary Servitude”, who died in his 30s.

La Boetie and Montaigne were the best of friends. John O’Donohue would call them “anam cara”, soul mates. They intensely identified with each other and in sixteenth century France it was common for young men to form such intense bonds with each other, maybe echoing their heroes, the ancient Greeks. They wrote passionate love letters to each other and had no hesitation describing their relationship as one based on love.

I’m not sure we use the word “love” enough these days, although I could also argue we’ve devalued it by using it too much! My own belief is that there isn’t enough love in this world, and the strongest relationships I’ve formed throughout my life are all based on love.

It’s therefore no surprise that when La Boetie got sick, deteriorated over a few days, then died with Montaigne at his bedside, that both the impact of his love for La Boetie and the depth of his grief at his death, remained with him for the rest of his life.

Seneca said we should identify “some admirable man” and “visualise him as an ever present audience”. Montaigne applied this teaching to his own life, and La Boetie was his chosen admirable man.

I read this chapter the same day I listened to an episode of the Emergence magazine podcast, “Navigating the Mysteries”, with Martin Shaw, where he recommends using our imagination to dialogue with individuals we admire and respect, whether they are alive today, or long since gone, or even fictional characters.

I think that’s a fascinating idea….to pick a favourite character, fictional or real, and dialogue with them. I think I might give it a go. Who would you choose for such an exercise?