The Daily Stoic - The Earth Is Big And Has Room For Everyone

Episode Date: August 3, 2022

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Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. insight, wisdom necessary for living good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystowach.com. The Earth is big and has room for everyone. There is a line in the Odyssey, most recently translated by the wonderful biographer of Sennaka Emily Wilson. Odysseus still early on in his journey home is speaking with a king and telling him of his deeds in the Trojan War. The king remarks the

earth sustains all different kinds of people. Many are cheats and thieves who fashion lies out of thin air. Clearly, this king has been deceived before, and knows how to look out for such people. He had a good read on Odysseus and could tell, despite the man's reputation for cunning and cleverness, he was fundamentally a good and honest person. What's interesting though is just how similar those remarks are, to one made by another king

Marcus Arelius several hundred years later in real life In meditations Marcus writes when you run up against someone else's shamelessness ask yourself this is a world without shamelessness possible No, then don't ask the impossible. There have to be shameless people in the world. This is one of them. The same for someone vicious or untrustworthy

or with any other defect. Remembering that the whole world class has to exist will make you more tolerant of its members. In both cases, we have essentially the same observation. The world is big and filled with all types of people. Some are honest, some are not, some are good, some are shameless. Might it be better if all were the former and none were the latter? Of course, but that's not the case. So instead we must learn how to distinguish between the two, we must not go around expecting everyone to be

perfect or reliable, we must accept that some people, for whatever reason, are destined to fill that undesirable quota of awfulness that the natural balance of order seems to demand. Don't take that personally, don't be surprised, don't ask for the impossible. And then, of course, continue to hold yourself to your own high standards. Because that's the class that you belong to. Just a heads up, there's now an obstacle is the way pendant in the Daily Stoic store. It's awesome. We have it made here in the U.S. We designed it ourselves. It's got Marcus Aurelius' enduring words on it, the impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way.

If you want something, you can carry with you always, you can wear around your neck, that reminds you that you can treat every obstacle as fuel, you can be better for everything that happens, that the way around is the way through, that the way through is the way. I suggest you check it out, I think you'll like it. Just go to dailystowic.com slash store. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily stoic early and ad free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen early and ad free with Wondery and add free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen

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