Life can be painful, confusing. Finding your own way & your own place in this life, with a million distractions promising enlightenment, and a million more promising escape. I think The Essays are slowly becoming a refuge for me - not to blindly accept what he says, but as a conversation. His essays are steeped in study & experience. Reading Montaigne, although it takes work, I'm finding that I can - and should - be my own captain in rough waters.