Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Friday, we do double duty not just reading our

daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic. My book, 366 Meditations

on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Heart of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator,

translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation

from the Stoics with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to

turn these words into works.

Have you been infected yet? In the year 165 AD, a plague began to break out in Rome. Brought

back from the far eastern corners of the Empire, the virus spread from person to person

and housed a house until nearly all of Rome was overwhelmed. The doctors could not keep up.

Neither could the morticians or the grave diggers. Rome's economy was devastated. Millions died,

millions fled. And the plague simply dragged on year after year without serious respite

for over a decade. 36 months ago, history repeated itself all over the world when COVID-19 began

to spread in similar fashion. A new virus, the right conditions and epidemic became a pandemic.

Our public health was better. We didn't futilely burn incense like the Romans, hoping to

ward off incense. But in the end, we were at the mercy of a force outside of our control,

just the same. We had to adjust. We had to accept. We had to face some of us more directly than

others. A very real threat of death, death in the air. Bodies and coolers in the streets

plans to use public parks to handle the overflow. Maybe you got COVID? Maybe you didn't.

Historians debate whether Marcus really has ever actually caught the measles or smallpox

that was the Antonin plague and whether he died of it or not. But Marcus himself was interested

in another virus that spread at the same time. As he wrote in meditations, there are two types of

pestilence in the midst of an epidemic, or indeed any crisis. There is the one that can destroy

...