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Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation,

but also reading a passage from the book, The Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Steve Enhancelman.

And so today, we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics, from Epititus Markis Relius, Seneca, then some analysis for me,

and then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works. The best way to arm yourself. Perhaps you remember the final scene of the movie gladiator. Maximus is wounded severely, and he's fighting against Comitus, who he has just temporarily disarmed.

Sword, Comitus, shouts to his Praetorian Guard, sword, but the soldiers refuse to help him. Maximus bleeding badly drops his sword and begins to drift into unconsciousness. His family is waiting for him in the afterlife. He walks towards them, but with a final exercise of will, he seizes command of himself.

Comitus comes at him with a dagger, with his bare hands and faltering strength, Maximus fights Comitus to submission, and then kills him. As Comitus impotently struggles against the very weapon, he tried to wield.

Victorious, but dying, Maximus uses his last breath to order Rome to be restored to the vision of Marcus Relius. It's a fictional scene, of course, a goose bump inducing one, to be sure. But also, in its own way, it's an illustration of one of the best passages and meditations. Be a boxer, not a fencer, Marcus Relius writes to himself. It's better to have your weapons be a natural part of you than to be something you have to pick up.

Comitus is dependent on his sword. He's dependent on the power of his office. He's dependent on fear. He's at the mercy of his own bodyguards. But Maximus is his own master. He moves under his own power. He is ruled by dignity, by his own strength, by his own principles, by his own weapons. He doesn't need anything or anyone, not to be great anyway. Even when he is bleeding out and under attack, all he has to do is to be a strong man.

If he is Marcus Relius writes, his clinch is fist. Who are you? Comitus or Maximus? Self-reliant or an imposter? A tyrant or a gladiator? A boxer or a fencer? If you're being truly honest, what would your final exercise of will look like?

We were made for each other. I'm reading today from the Daily Stoic 366 Meditations on Wisdom Perseverance in the Art of Living by yours truly. My co-author and translator, Steve Enhancelman, you can get signed copies, by the way.

In the Daily Stoic store, over a million copies of the Daily Stoic and print now, it's been just such a lovely experience to watch it. It's been more than 250 weeks, consecutive weeks on the bestseller. It's just an awesome experience.

But I hope you check it out. We have a premium leather edition at store.dailystoic.com as well. But let's get on with today's reading.

You'll more quickly find an earthly thing kept from the earth than you will find a person cut off from other human beings. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 9.9.

Now, naturally, Marcus Aurelius and the rest of the Stoics were not familiar with Newtonian physics. But they knew that what went up must come down. And that's the analogy that Marcus is using here.

Our mutual independence with our fellow human beings stronger than the law of gravity. Philosophy attracts introverts to be sure.

And the study of human nature can make you aware of other people's faults and can breathe contempt for others.

So do struggle and difficulty. They isolate us from the world. But none of that changes that we are as Aristotle put it, social animals. We need each other.

We must be there for each other. We must take care of each other and allow others to care for us and return to pretend otherwise.

It's to violate our nature to be more or less than what it means to be a human being.

You know, one of my favorite quotes from Marcus Aurelius. It's not obviously attached to today's entry. But he says that fruit of this life is good character and acts for the common good.

And Marcus Aurelius talks about common good. This idea of our connectedness. This idea of sympathy. Like 80 or so times in meditations. I mean, just over and over again. He talks about it.

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