Aurelius vs Howie

To me, it seems obvious why Howie is so avaggrated by Aurelius' thoughts regarding mortality--specifically, that life is quite trivial. Howie's reaction, a common expression of emotion from him, is expected because by now we have realized how important life's trivialities are to him. For Howie, trivialities dont exist-- each little observation one makes can be explored in great detail, until it seems as important as a Law of Science or an "eleventh commandment". For Aurelius to imply that life doesn't really matter serves as an attack on Howie's outlook on the world: everything matters.
Of course, no one wants to hear that in the long run, they don't really matter. The statement could spark a serious philosophical debate on the meaning of life, but Howie has a more personal reason to be opposed to Aurelius' writings. No wonder he had stopped reading the last time! Aurelius had just insulted the very things that Howie enjoys the most in his otherwise inconspicuous life.
Without ever actually mentioning these things (namely, those occurences and objects that, when examined in detail, prove both contemplative and impressive), Aurelius manages to offend Howie. By using the word "trivial" he means to say that not much really matters in life. However, Howie approaches the world from a very individual point of view. He doesn't care how the world will remember him, he just loves examining his surroundings for all they are worth. Of course these things matter! Why else would he care so much? Even if no one else cared about the milk carton or whether or not to ask for a bag when buying shoelaces from CVS, they still arent trivial! The very fact that Howie takes these two things seriously makes them quite untrivial, in fact.
For me, the main difference between Howie and Aurelius is how they view the world. While Aurelius attempts to look at life from an outsider's perspective, Howie is very much a part of his world, and his philosophy recognizes this fact by treating everything with importance.