The Daily Stoic - What Matters and What Doesn’t

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

"It’s almost surreal to think about the things we were thinking about not long ago. How could we have been so naive? So entitled? How could we have missed the signs?Well, no matter, life has a way of letting you know that you’ve had your head up your own ass. And there is no other expression for what Western society, particularly but by no means limited to the progressive amongst us, has done to itself. Cultural appropriation. Micro-aggressions. The War on Christmas. Does square dancing have racist origins? Are unboxing videos bad for children? How dare that guy not stand for the national anthem?"Ryan explains what we should actually be focusing on, on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target. The new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, 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. What matters and what doesn't? It's almost surreal to think about the things we were thinking about not long ago. How could we have been so naive, so entitled? How could we have missed all the signs? Well, no matter, because life has a way of letting you know that you've had your head up your own ass.

And there is no other expression for what Western society, particularly, but by no means limited to the most progressive amongst us, than that we've had our head up our own ass. Cultural appropriation, microaggressions, the war on Christmas to square dancing have racist origins are unboxing videos bad for children, how dare that guy not stand for the national anthem.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how some of the smartest minds in my world used to spend their days on laptops trying to cancel baby, it's cold outside. The writer Barry Weiss recently wrote, meanwhile, she said, many women in this world still don't have access to credit or tampons. Unfortunately, this is not new. Marcus Aurelius described life in Rome of pointless bustling of processions,

opera areas, herds of sheep and cattle, military exercises, a bone flung to pet poodles, a little food in the fish tank, the things that people focus on and what they miss by choosing to prioritize the wrong things. There's not a lot of good in a pandemic, but one thing it should do for us is remind us about what matters and what doesn't. It should chase us, how arrogant and silly the things we've been angry about seem to be. It should give us a sense of urgency. There are real issues out there, issues of serious injustice that we are obligated to address.

It should give us a sense of purpose. We can die at any moment. Is this really what we want to spend our time on? We have been decadent and stupid. We were sleepwalking through life. We were not prepared. Well, now we are experiencing the cost of those decisions. We can't change that.

But we can choose to stay awake now and commit not to drifting off again. We can prioritize what matters starting today and what does matter. Other people illuminating real suffering, fulfilling our potential and making sure that everyone else has the chance to do the same. Courage, wisdom, temperance, duty.

If you like the podcast that we do here and you wanna get it via email every morning, you can sign up at dailystowoc.com slash email. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily Stoch early and ad free on Amazon music, download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen early and ad free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just gonna end up on Page Six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellesai.

And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wundery's new podcast, Dis and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud from the buildup, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feuds say about us the first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama but none is drawn out in personal as Brittany and Jamie Lynn Spears when Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship Jamie Lynn's lack of public support it angered some fans a lot of them It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling parents,

but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Brittany. Follow Dissentel wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music or the Wonder App. podcast. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music or the Wondering app.