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.

It's good to have difficult people in your life.

Maybe your parents have issues. Maybe you have

trouble getting along with your siblings. Maybe your spouse and you are very different. Maybe you have

one of those just no mother-in-laws. Maybe you have a kid who has struggled with addiction,

with anger issues, with a disability. Maybe you have all those things and more.

And it's tough. Sometimes you resent it. Sometimes it drives you crazy. Marcus Aurelius knew this

feeling well. His stepbrother, Lucius Veras, was almost his complete opposite. Where Marcus was

strict and serious. His brother, from what we hear, was not.

Where Marcus was philosophical and wise, his brother was not. Did this drive him crazy sometimes?

You bet. But he also cherished this relationship, not just because they grew up together,

but because it made him better, because he chose to see the good in it. That I had the kind of brother I did,

he says, gratefully in meditations, one whose character challenged me to improve my own,

one whose love and affection enriched my life. You have to take this kind of philosophical approach

with your own family, with your own kids, or life will chew you up and spit you out,

or the stress and the conflict will break you and break your heart. Epictetus speaking of his own

relatives talked about grabbing situations by the right handle, not the one of resentment or

frustration, but the one of love, the one of connection, the one that challenges you to fix

yourself rather than other people, because that that challenges you to fix yourself rather than

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