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.

Just put it on my tab. Life was just one thing after another for Marcus Aurelius, the plague,

the flooding, the wars. He did not meet with the good fortune he deserved one ancient

historian noted as his whole reign was a series of troubles. Anyone who has had a run of

bad luck knows the feeling. It's frustrating and annoying and sometimes deeply unfair, but

there's also something freeing about it. Because after a certain point, you stop fighting

and start accepting. We can imagine Marcus after the 50th piece of bad news, just saying,

all right, put it on my tab. What was one more thing at that point? What did it even

matter? He knew there was no use resenting, no use wishing it was otherwise, no escaping,

no denying, just had to add it to the list. He had to accept it was pouring and he was

in for a long wet night. He had to focus on a plan for what was to come next. It would

do us good to borrow this attitude, particularly lately. We've had our own plague, civil unrest,

wars, economic downturns. And on top of this, our own personal issues, perhaps a divorced

young children, trouble at work and injury or a diagnosis. While we should never accept

injustice or give up hope, we do need to accept that it's time to buckle up. It's not going

to be an easy ride. The bill is not going to be cheap. Somebody is going to have to pay

it. And like Marcus are really us in our own lives, that person is us. So tell them to

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