Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke Podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.

Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

When it comes to family, we have to be kind. Marcus Arelius' step-brother Lucius Varis was hardly a great man. Unlike Marcus, he was not as driven or as smart.

We hear that he liked a party. He was not always so diligent in his responsibilities. But still, Marcus Arelius loved his step-brother and not only found a role for him leading the troops, but celebrated his accomplishments, sometimes the expense of his own.

What he have treated his other generals so generously, it's doubtful. In Rome, it was said that not all men could be Kato's. And that included Kato's brother.

His brother was more stoic than Lucius Varis, but he also loved luxury, at least compared to his brother. Did it bother Kato that his brother were perfume?

Would he have judged other men harshly for doing the same thing? Probably. But as Bruce Springsteen put it in one of his greatest songs, when it's your brother, sometimes you look the other way.

Is this stoic to hold people you love to different standards, to let them get away with things you wouldn't do yourself? Maybe, maybe not. It's also life.

An epictetus's famous metaphor that everything has to handles, one which will hold weight and the other which will not. He actually references this exact kind of situation.

You can choose to grab hold of the fact that something wrong has been done to you, or you can choose to grab hold of the fact that it was done by your brother, someone you were raised with, someone who loves you, and has a good heart. Which of those is a better handle?

Marcus Arelius and Kato could have looked down on their brothers. Instead they loved them. When Kato's brother died, he told a friend he'd rather part with his life than his brother's ashes.

And they were willing to look the other way, not just for brothers, but with all the people they lived with and were related to.

Marcus Arelius did this well with his wife, whose rubric to be unfaithful, and of course too well, or not well enough, with his son, who clearly won a stray.

Kato did this with his sister, who had a toured affair with Julius Caesar, his worst enemy. We must be kind to our family, we must forgive, because they are all we have.

Like us, they are not perfect, not by a long shot. In fact, they might be obnoxious or deeply flawed, but they are our blood. We share a past.

And if we want to share a future, we need to see what is good in them and encourage that up to a point, of course. But now let's grab the kindness and forgiveness and love handle. Look for it and look away.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad free on Amazon music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.

The 10% happier podcast hosted by me, Dan Harris, has won over arching message. Happiness is a skill. The mind is trainable. So why not get involved with this?

I used to be a fidgety skeptical news anchor, but after having a panic attack on national television, which was pretty inconvenient, I decided to change my life. I went on a whole trip to learn everything I could about the human brain, the human mind, the human psyche.

And now my job is to help you achieve some measure of peace and happiness in your own life. On my show every week, I talk to top scientists, meditation teachers, even the odd celebrity in wide ranging conversations that explore topics such as productivity, relationships, anxiety, enlightenment, and psychedelics.

You can think about listening to 10% happier as a workout for your mind, although hopefully not sweaty. 10% happier is available one week early on Amazon Music, or if you want to hear new episodes early and ad free, you can subscribe to Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts or on the Wondery app.

...