Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you with your

most important job being a dad. These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy, by practical

wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Be a towering example.

Choose a cato, Seneca told Lucilius. Choose a master whose life,

conversation, and soul expressing face. You can hold up as an example to regulate your actions.

Many of history's greatest figures did, in fact, choose Cato. He was George Washington's hero.

On the front page of the diary where

Ben Franklin tracked the progress of his famous 13 virtues of self-improvement, he wrote down his

motto, lines from Joseph Addison's Cato. Patrick Henry dared King George to give him liberty or death,

lines from Cato. Nathan Hale regretted that he had but one life to lose for his

country, a line from Cato. And the old proverbial expression used to make excuses, what do you expect of us?

We can't all be Cato's. Cato didn't write any books. He never taught classes. He never gave

interviews. He liked to say that he only

spoke when he was certain that what he'd say wasn't better left unsaid. You won't find many

statues of him in Rome. Books about him are few and far between. Yet his example inspired plenty.

It continues today teaching people he never met. It was Cato's character,

his self-discipline, his heroic defense of the Republic, his bold and brave example that made him

one of the most towering figures from his time to ours. That's what Seneca and Washington and

Franklin and Henry and Hale were emulating, Not what Cato said, what he did.

Right now, you are your kids Cato. They are holding you up as their example. They are regulating

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