The Daily Stoic - What Will This Cause? | Ask Daily Stoic

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

When horrible things happen to us, our instinct is always to ask why me? Why this? Why now? It’s understandable, but it’s also irrelevant and unhelpful, because those questions have no answer. At least no answer that you can do anything about or take any comfort from. Besides, life has a better question. One it is constantly asking us, one that Michael Lewis to his credit has fully embraced: what will this cause? Will it put us out of commission or give us a new mission? Will it cause good things or bad things?And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions as part of a Stoicism virtual discussion. Topics include the best ways to teach Stoic wisdom to kids and why a formal education doesn't necessarily equate to practical intelligence. ✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee 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 Stoic Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery'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 podcast where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. Well on Thursdays we not only read the daily meditation but we answer some questions from

listeners and fellow stoics. We're trying to apply this philosophy just as you are. Some of these come from my talks. Some of these come from Zoom sessions that we do with daily stoic life members or as part of the challenges. Some of them are from interactions I have on the street when there happened to be someone they're recording.

But thank you for listening. And we hope this is of use to you. What will this cause? In 2021, the author Michael Lewis experienced just about the worst thing that can happen to a parent when his daughter was killed in a car accident. Asked about the grief of losing a child, Lewis said first that it was exhausting. Every night I go to bed, he said, I'm thinking about Dixie Lewis and every morning I wake up, I'm thinking about Dixie Lewis.

Then he added, I can't control that she died, I can't do anything about that. All I can control is what her death causes, and I'm determined that it caused good things, not bad things. That's what I'm focused on. Is what does this cause? Like, make sure it doesn't cause more pain. See, if it causes something else. The Stoics were not unfamiliar with this kind of horrendous grief. As Seneca received news of his exile, he was mourning the loss of his only child. Yet quite beautifully, he channeled this pain into one of his most enduring essays of consolation to Hellvia, which he addressed to his mother, who herself was mourning what it would mean to perhaps never see her son again.

Marcus really has buried multiple children, could have so easily been consumed by anger and devastation. Instead, he carried on trying to be of service consumed by anger and devastation. Instead, he carried on trying to be of service to the empire and to others. When horrible things happen to us, our instinct is always to ask why me, why this, why and now. It's understandable, but it's also irrelevant and unhelpful because those questions have no answer, or at least no answer that can make you do anything or take any comfort from. Besides life has a better question.

One, it is constantly asking us, one that Michael Lewis to his credit has fully embraced. What will this cause? Will it put us out of commission or give us a new mission? Will it cause good things or bad things? Ultimately, we don't know why awful things happen and there is so little we can do to prevent them all. All we can choose is what we do after they befall us. All we can influence is what they cause,

whether we can find a way to carry on and do good in response to what we have experienced. I have a question. Go for it. Hi. Hi. Do you have books for children? I've adolescents that you would recommend that introduce this concept to make an assessment? So my, my, my oldest is turning six in November.

So don't, having quite gotten to the adolescent phase of things yet, I'm sure that will challenge my stoicism in every imaginable way, especially when they they become teenagers. But, you know, one thing in March of 2020, as suddenly, uh, I wasn't going anywhere, uh, things slowed down, uh, family became, you know, the, the, the most important thing. I'd had this idea that I was thinking about for a long time. I didn't quite know how to do, I didn't know if I was ready for, I didn't know if it would work, but I'd been wanting to do a kid's book or a fable about Marcus Aurelus' journey, the idea that this kid is selected to become emperor and how does he prepare for that? How does he get those ivory shoulders? So I did, I actually wrote it

and finished it during the pandemic. I did this book called The Boy Who Would Be King, a fable about Marcus Arelius and here actually let me show you this page. Here's his ivory shoulders as after he has the dream. Anyways I'm very proud of this book and it's got a special place in my heart because I got to read it so many times and work on it with my kids but this is the closest that I have a sort of an encapsulation of what's to a philosophy means to young people and the idea that philosophy is something that everyone is suited for and that we have to sort of do the work to become leaders. Thank you.

I think sometimes it's hard enough to be selected to just be a fourth grader. Of course. No, it's, I think about how difficult it, if these last two years have been difficult for us as adults with understanding and experience and, you know, even just language to wrap our heads around all of this, I just, it makes me, it sort of overwhelms me to think about how difficult this has been for anyone who's a kid of any age. But I also, you know, when you talk to a grandparent

or a parent who lived through the Depression or World War II, you know, they don't reflect on that as the lost years, right? Or as this thing that was so unfair or terrible or painful, even though it was awful in so many ways, like so much of the wisdom and strength and capabilities that they have now came from that formative experience. So there is part of me that's

not even part of me. I'm I feel great about who my kids are going to be when they're older not in spite of what they've gone through at this young formative age, but because of what they've gone through at this This age, I know they can get through anything. So I don't think about it as what they've gone through at this stage, I know they can get through anything. So I don't think about it as what they've lost, but although we have to acknowledge what they have been deprived of, but I also think about what they've gained and what they will gain

and what we can make sure that they take out of this experience. I'm Brian, it's Molly again in the back. So I'm gonna ask you a nosy question. I just so in awe about anyone to study philosophy. Could you share a little bit about your education and what motivated you to study philosophy and maybe a little bit how you got started after you graduated in Macburefield?

So I am not a graduate. I am a college dropout self-taught student of philosophy. I was introduced to stoicism in college. I really wanted to be a writer. And I really just wanted to be like in the thick of things that I dropped out. At about 19, I apprenticed under a great writer named Robert Green, who wrote the 40 Laws of Power and the 33 Stratus of War. He wrote a wonderful book called Mastery. And he has another book I can't

recommend enough called The Daily Laws, which is sort of a daily primer on his way of thinking. So I started there as a researcher, just someone who loves books, who loves history, loves big ideas, and it's been sort of a self-guided, self-directed course since then. I had a career in marketing in my 20s where I got to do some cool and some also alarming things and that I pivoted from to be a full time writer and practitioner of these ideas that I'm talking about. Thank you. I'm feeling the 20s is just like yesterday, right? Yes, it was sort of a simultaneous path on a lot of,

or concurrent path on a lot of this stuff, but yeah, it was a fun ride. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke 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. Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could live in a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean working during the day and partying at night with your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder's Sam Bankman Freed lived that dream life, but it was all funded with other

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