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Welcome to the Daily Stoke Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stokes illustrated with stories from history,

current events and literature to help you be better at what you do.

And at the beginning of the week we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of stoke, intention for the week,

something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing.

So let's get into it.

As the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, they knew that this wasn't some painless petition.

This wasn't some minor political stand. No, they knew as they wrote that they were mutually pledging their life fortune and sacred honor.

It was a cause they were willing to give everything for, even die for.

This idea of sacred honor, a full commitment, is worth considering today here on Memorial Day as we honor and think about those men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

Because here in the modern world it's never been easier to jump on a bandwagon with a hashtag or post a picture.

It's never been easier to spout off on this argument or that one.

It's also never been more common to declare oneself a victim of cancel culture or of persecution when one undergoes even the slightest consequences for their actions.

People stormed the United States Capitol because they were angry about losing a free and fair election.

And even so they tried to invoke the mantle of the founders, not only were they wrong and evil, but then they whined like babies when they were maced by officers who really were pledging their lives

to defend democracy.

The Stokes knew about pledging one's life, liberty and sacred honor.

Thrasia and Helvides, as I tell in lives of the Stokes, they gave everything in their defiance of Nero.

Cato committed everything to preserve the Roman Republic.

Rutilious Rufus lost his job, his home, his standing in Rome rather than participate in corruption.

They didn't take these stands lightly nor did they attach themselves frivolously to whatever the mob was angry about at the moment.

The question for you today and always is what do you pledge your sacred honor to?

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